His modus operandi is simple. He photographs civic problems as and when he encounters them. And then petitions Lok Ayukt adalats held every second and fourth Saturdays. Telltale pictures on official callousness invariably move the courts to issue orders. No legal sophistry here to delay justice since the petitioner himself argues the case. If the authorities delay implementing the adalat order, he moves contempt notices and holds dharnas compelling the media to put the issue in focus. "Most of us do not realise that adalats are forums for the public to argue their cases and get quick justice," reminds Sathyavan.
One of his recent interventions before the adalat led the magistrate to decree the setting up of toilets in the main market in Kottarakkara town. Says Aysha Potti, the former president of Kollam district panchayat: "We’ve sanctioned more than Rs 2 lakh and set up pay-and-use toilets. It was a need voiced by women vendors all these years." Sathyavan did his bit to force the authorities to act.
Sathyavan’s grassroots, micro-level campaigns have been inspired by his own experience. "I’d watched helplessly as an arts teacher at the Government High School, Barton Hills in Thiruvananthapuram when student unionists forced fellow students into joining agitations. The silent majority were led to the streets. It was this experience that made me take up the campaign for depoliticisation of campuses which ultimately led to the court ban on party-based elections in schools," says Sathyavan. Says Lida Jacob, former director of public instruction: "The relative peace in Kerala schools today owes a great deal to this humble pensioner. Posterity will recall with gratitude his Vidyabhasa Suraksha Samiti’s contribution to the improvement of board exam results following lesser strikes and more working days." The CPI(M) filed an appeal against the ban but the court declined the prayer. Politicians had to grudgingly accept defeat at the hands of Sathyavan.
His energies are focused on citizen empowerment. His current campaign is to press village councils to publish their audited accounts at gram sabhas within two months of the financial year ending, as per law. He rues that the gram panchayat in his own home town had spent Rs 5 crore in the past five years but was yet to account for it. Noting that thinly-attended gram sabhas make a mockery of the spirit of the Constitution, Sathyavan has done his bit to get opinion makers to convince the public to attend the gram sabhas.
Another area Sathyavan has focused on has been eye donations. He has distributed hundreds of consent forms for prospective donors. His residence at Kottarakkara is now a recognised centre to facilitate eye donations. He even took on the tobacco lobby when he wrote to all 140 legislators in Kerala to ban pan masala. Sathyavan backed his demand with impressive statistics—the annual tax revenue from the sale of tobacco and its products is Rs 2,000 crore and the outflow on treating oral illnesses caused by tobacco consumption is Rs 2,500 crore.
And where does Sathyavan get the funds to carry on the fight? Voluntary donations and occasional awards. One of his supporters, poet and novelist Kamala Das aka Kamala Soraiya, had presented him with a Lok Seva puraskar of Rs 25,000 a few years ago. However, more often than not, he forks out from his monthly pension of Rs 5,000.His name is actually T.K. Mathai Kunju but his mother called him Sathyavan (the honest one). "Now I have to live up to my name lest it becomes an embarrassing misnomer," jokes the solitary crusader.
Contact: SM House, Market Junction, Kottarakkara, Kollam, Kerala—691506. Tel: 0474 2452726
