Feature Image Credits: Fusion WeRIndia
On the list of the Padma Shri awardees was the name Pappammal, a 105-year-old woman who received this prestigious honour for her work in agriculture. This centenarian was a pioneer in the field of agriculture and has lived through two World Wars, and now a global pandemic.
She was born in 1914 in the Devalapuram village of the Mettupalayam district near Coimbatore. She was entirely raised by her paternal grandmother in Thekkampatti, after having lost her parents at a very young age. She started farming when she was an adolescent, on her 10 acres of farmland, which she claimed was ‘everything to her’. She cultivates millets, pulses, vegetables and such in an entirely organic procedure, and runs her own provision store and eatery, where she sells her produce.
In the earlier stages, she used to visit the Tamilnadu Agricultural University to learn about the new agricultural practices and get subsidised pesticides and such. Later, when she realised the harmful effects that it caused, she switched entirely to conventional farming techniques.
She joined the DMK in her thirties, and has been a member of the party for the past 72 years. She has also held various positions. She was elected as the Village Councillor of Thekkampatti after the Tamilnadu Panchayat Act was passed in 1958, and became the first village head after this act in 1959. Despite all of this, it is noteworthy that there were no dirty politics involved by the Central Government run by the NDA while conferring her with the honour, in accordance with the work she has done, and not which party she belongs to.
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