MADURAI: In a bid to help his daughter realise her dream of becoming an IT professional, a physically challenged man from Pudukottai has taken to begging in Madurai, as the money he earns through menial jobs is insufficient to support an engineering student.M Ravichandran, who lost his right leg in a train accident, has kept his moonlighting as a beggar a secret from his wife and two daughters. He visits them twice a month at Pudukottai with the money he makes through begging in front of a mosque and restaurants on Town Hall road in Madurai.Ravichandran, an illiterate — who used to supply home-made snacks to petty shops — had to depend on his parents after the accident. Following his parents’ death, he got married in 1991. He took to panhandling about six years ago and has been able to send Rs 4,000-6,000 to his family every month. After his eldest daughter joined a private engineering college on government quota last year, he spent around Rs 60,000 for her education. He said he borrowed a third of this amount, while he got Rs 20,000 as a bank loan and another Rs 20,000 as dole from the government. His financial struggle brought him to Madurai-based NGO Bharathi Yuva Kendra’s founder Nellai Balu, who collected Rs 8,000 for the family’s aide apart from urging businessman P Valandhur Pandiyan to sponsor a laptop worth Rs 35,500 for Ravichandran’s daughter. After receiving the laptop from Madurai district collector U Sagayam, the girl said she would take care of her parents and educate her younger sister, once she becomes an IT professional.
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