Chezhian Ramu, a social worker and child rights activist based in Tiruvannamalai district, was awarded the Rajiv Gandhi Manav Seva Award, instituted by the Ministry of Women and Child Development.

Mr. Chezhian received the award from President Ram Nath Kovind, on November 14, Children’s Day. He is among the three social workers selected across the country for the award.

“It was a great honour to receive the award,” said Mr. Chezhian, who’s journey in protecting rights of underprivileged children began 25 years ago, when he lost his parents in a car accident. “I was left alone and moved to Tiruvannamalai. There I found an unreasonably high number of children begging. I began working for them without any organisation structure,” he said.

For the next three years, Mr. Chezhian devoted his time working on eliminating child beggary and providing job opportunities to their families. “It was not easy as a lot of them were stuck in organised begging rackets. But we managed,” he said.

He later joined the Swiss child relief agency, Terre Des Hommes, and worked on the rescue and rehabilitation of children affected during the 1993 Latur earthquake in Maharashtra. “The scene there moved me immensely and I decided to set up an organisation exclusively to protect children’s rights,” he said.

In the year 1994, he set up TDH CORE – Terre Des Hommes Children Organisation for Relief and Education in Tiruvannamalai, and Lifeline in 1998, where over 900 children are currently being looked after in 16 homes across the State. Four of them are schools meant for disabled children.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by Staff Reporter / Chennai – December 05th, 2017