On S. Thanaraj

    
 His story is unlike any other story, he has had a very active social life and has had an enriching experience in many fields. Aged 38 Thanaraj sir is a lawyer but does not practice law in the court but strives to bring justice for the needed by involving the people and allowing them to voice out their opinions. He comes from very humble background, he lived in a drought ridden village where people were struggling to even find a job. His father was an official in the education department while his mother was a CSI Christian, they were basically a Dalit family. His father's strict upbringing was responsible for molding him to who he is today.
     The society he lived in was highly caste discriminated, everyday they had to face this kind of discrimination wherever they went. A lot of social evils such as stealing and liquor drinking was very common in their society. He was against all this, even when his friends indulged in stealing he discouraged it and stayed away from such acts. He noticed how they were severely punished for such acts because they viewed it as violation of caste, even adults who indulged were hit and had to undergo a lot of humiliation. Since he had seen all this as a child he wanted to bring about a casteless society. As a student he took to social service by helping the physically disabled and his anger was seen in most of his works, he wrote many poems against liquor drinking and brought about the vices and stated them openly. He then was interested in journalism and so wrote to many newspapers and even became a student reporter, he wanted to open the eyes of people to many such boiling issues so that they may stopped. 
  He then came to Madurai to pursue law where he met Y. David who also was a social activist, as a student reporter he questioned Y. David asking him how he thinks he can bring about a change. Inspired by him he quit as a reporter and joined hands with Y. David to stop the injustice in Kudangullam.  This way he becomes a part of their social service and travels through out Tamilnadu for rendering services. This way he was able to meet many social workers and he himself became a social activist. 
  Since he was working as asocial activist he was encouraged to work with Palliyar community, a tribal community who are basically a food gathering community. They had to struggle a lot since many of the basic needs were denied to them. Many of them did not even have a home, so he worked and helped them in getting them a home. Most of the women and girls faced a lot of sexual abuse and the police were not  ready to lodge a complaint so with his help he was able to help the victims by putting the criminals in prison. He was able to bring many such changes in this community which was often ignored. He later married a lady from the Pallangudi  aathivaasi community and works amongst them along with his wife. Later he started working with Ekta Parishad, an organisation working for the rights of many communities. He was able to bring about many policies for many of these minority communities.He wants to be the voice of many of them and voices on land rights and works for their empowerment. He has lost much but has gained a lot and says he finds this kind of a life very puposeful and very meaningful.