Vellapally Natesan on mission to save ezhava girls

Thiruvananthapuram: SNDP Yogam general secretary Vellapally Natesan is on a mission to save the girls of Ezhava community from going astray.   He has  launched a girls’ wing,  'Kumari Sangham,'  to ‘catch them young.’   This was  born out of his realisation that several young girls from the community have undergone  religious conversion and some have committed  suicide after love failures.    

Mr Vellapally launched Kumari Sangham in  Thrissur on Tuesday when  close to 8000 people from the community attended  it.   Thirteen  keerthanas of social reformer Sreenarayana Guru were sung on the occasion.  Girls aged  between 12 – 21 years will be  enrolled into the Kumari Sangham.  

After  the Akhila  case snowballed into a major controversy after her marriage with Shefin Jahan, several SNDP unions  had  sought the intervention of Mr Vellapally to make the girls  self-confident and  stand on their own  feet by inculcating in them the teachings of Guru.

“We have not taken any survey on  Ezhava girls going astray. But from reports we realized that many of them are falling for religious conversion, visiting meditation centres and getting disappointed with their lives. My aim is to evolve the young girls to ‘Unniyarchas,’”  said Mr Vellapally.

The youth wing of  SNDP  has  more than 3,000 shakhas across the state and in the Gulf countries. There are 150 SNDP Yogam unions. According to the 2011 census, Ezhavas form the majority among the state’s population with 28 percent.  Christians  form 19 percent and Muslims  24-25 percent.

But Mr Vellapally denied that his latest move has  any political aims.  The voting age for general elections is  18 years now.