dear jai,
thank you for an informative post.
there is a charity called 'kerala iyers trust'. it is by pattars, for all tambrams. i belong to it. the turnaround is quick.
so folks, who need financial help, either for education, or for medical purposes, should apply right away. the turnaround time is a couple of days, for indeed verification is done by a third party.
one does not even have to be poor, but just the need is enough - one member in this forum, could not meet the capitation fees for his daughter's college, but was ok with the fees. within a couple of days, the capitation fee was helped out.
even for jobs, if they need, i am quite sure, there will be help.
surprising thng is, that kit has not received any requests for the past few months. a few years ago, there used to requests predominantly to help out with the fees for poor tambrams or pattar kids going to college.
then that stopped, and help was needed only for health purposes - operation, or support to the family due to debilitating disease of the main wage earner, or something to tidy up because of a wedding expense (yes that too - purchase of a thali, koora podavai, basic household setup ).
long standing members here are aware of kit, but it may be a good idea now to let everyone know of this organization.
the kerala iyers trust, is managed by a large hearted couple mumbai retirees, admin cost is zero, supported by pattars the world over - for benefit of pattars and tambrams.
still, i am somewhat skeptical that 90% of tambrams live in poverty. though i am a pattar with all my antecedents in north malabar and further away palghat.
incidentally, there was an intense thread here once upon a time, about unity and the need to build up tambram friendly institutions.
there was a talk of emulating or merging with kit. kit is successful because it has an ardent dedocated though small support base, mostly from mid east, and a scattered north american one. the requests come through various sources, but a kit member from nearby where the request is made, should go and verify the need. which usually passes. and the money is transferred immediately to the needy bank a/c. turnaround 2 or 3 days from when rqst received. admin cost ZERO.
it could be repeated here, but nothing came out of it.
then there was talk here of starting an education institution in b'lore where tambrams qualify for special status as we are linguistic minority. it came to belling the cat - lots of advice and hot air; but no action.
there was a marriage bureau - but largely due to internal politics, it split and is now operating as a separate organization, with a website of its own. incidentally, the website is restricted one, with none of the wide spectrum of ideas like you see here. those who wished to discuss narrowly the context of what they perceived to be brahminism and what is good for brahminism and how it is getting destroyed these days, moved there. the rest of us, stuck around.
my own personal view, was that any large scale brick and mortar or even an endowment takes time and politics. personally, i know, that a recipe for success is to be single focus charity. i would not like any influence from the mutts (kanchi or otherwise) or the supposed tambram friendly political parties like bjp or worse still rss or bajrang dal.
so to get broadbased help, one needs to keep it focussed to the least common denominator. which is why, i think kit has been successful. no one talks of politics or religion there. just needy, and the needer. and amount of need. very simple.
the quickest way, so as not to lose a generation, is to gather funds as needed, quickly and readily. youth is a great thing to waste. .. we should help our youth immediately. not ask them to wait for buildings to come up. it will never happen, i think.
this forum has also collected funds for eduction. except, those who were helped, did not even have the courtesy, to report us, of their progress, inspite of repeated queries. such too is folk who receive help.
i come from lower middle class, but like the rest of tambram friends and family, within two generations, have moved to a comfortable level, with a few of us qualifying to be considered higher in the economic scale. all this due to hard work, innovation, some common sense, and ability to seize opportunities, and willingness to relocate to any part of the world. chase jobs where they are.
i realize that there are pockets of tambram poverty. there are those that could be helped, and there are some, that are beyond it. it just happens that way. again, i think, there should be a desire to shake off the burden of poverty - a willingness to relocate is the most primary requirement. and then... willingness to take any job. many factory jobs are better paying than desk jobs. i do not know, if we still have a stigma against working with our hands. not sure...
go where the jobs and opportunities are. sitting in a village and being a temple priest may be self satisfying or a handmedown vocation, but if it does not put food on the table, move on.
i think, we are morally obliged, to help anyone who has a desire to move up, especially the young who are unable to pursue an education for want of funds. as some one here said, that nowadays banks are obliged to fund for education - they should take advantage of it and not consider student loan a burden, but a help to step up the economic ladder.
sorry for the long blabber.. your post just simply triggered some random thoughts, which somehow were related to tambram poverty.
90%? i dont know!!
thank you and God Bless.
