Helping her people

Her little charges have been packed off home and 25-year-old A. Devika is straightening out the few pieces of furniture in the Community Hall which doubles as the pre-school.A product of Kudagama itself, Devika has taken on the onerous task of coaxing the mothers to send their 3-4 year-olds to "play-learn" a few things before going to regular school.

Her life has not been easy. Her father is ill but her mother goes out to tell people's fortunes. Her brothers own some land and her grandfather was the earlier Nayakaya, she says, adding that she sat the OLs but failed in maths and decided to improve her lot by taking a job as a housemaid in Dubai.

"The teenagers in the family hit me everyday," says Devika who returned without a cent, buying the plane ticket at her own cost. Then came the opportunity to take up the post of pre-school teacher, after undergoing training at a temple.

Thirty-five children attend the pre-school on and off, with only about eight to nine coming in regularly."Poverty is the cause of the misery of my people," she says, as schoolchildren stop by to pay obeisance, going down on their knees at her feet.