S.R.Sankaran
Can you imagine a very large number of people from all walks of life joining the funeral procession of a retired bureaucrat? That happened in Hyderabad, when S.R. Sankaran, a former officer of the Indian Administrative Service passed away on October 7, 2010. That was a rare tribute to the memory of a civil servant.
Though Sankaran was a civil servant and became the Chief Secretary of the State of Tripura, he was also a social worker. He was known for his contributions for the enforcement of Abolition of Bonded Labour Act, 1976, which abolished that practice in India. He was a mentor to the Safai Karmachari Andolan, a social initiative propagated by Bezwada Wilson for the eradication of manual scavenging in India.
Sankaran was fearless in doing his duty and was once held hostage by the People’s War Group, an extremist organization, but was released unharmed. Later, he became the chief negotiator of the Andhra Pradesh government in the 2004 negotiations to end the violence of extremist groups.
When Sankaran was the Secretary, Department of Social Welfare, Andhra Pradesh, he went from village to village, held meetings with bonded labourers, told them that they had the right to be free, and mobilised them to rebel against a lifetime of bondage. The then Chief Minister of the State did not like the fame that Sankaran was getting among the people due to his work and declared that Sankaran was a trouble maker.
When Sankaran told the Chief Minister that he was only doing his duty, the latter said that such subversives had no place in his government. Sankaran replied that he too did not want to work in that government and proceeded on long leave. This turned out to be a turning point in his life.
The legendary Marxist Chief Minister of the North-eastern State of Tripura, Nripen Chakraborty, invited him to shift to Tripura and serve there as Chief Secretary. Both Sankaran and Chakraborty were austere bachelors, fiercely honest, had few worldly belongings, and even washed their own clothes. They formed a unique partnership, leading the state for six years. Few governments in India earned such a reputation of integrity, service and justice for the under-privileged as theirs did.
Sankaran was so humble that he declined the award of Padma Bhushan, a high civilian honour given to him in 2005 for his contributions to society.
Legendary and so inspiring. The best part of most of such people is their clear purpose or Ikigai.. Things just align then.. Thank you for the story
“Both Sankaran and Chakraborty were austere bachelors, fiercely honest, had few worldly belongings, and even washed their own clothes. They formed a unique partnership, leading the state for six years”.
This made all the difference in their attitudes to life.