After finishing a day’s work in his welding workshop, 51-year-old A Loganathan steps out to clean the bathrooms of private companies in Coimbatore.
Why does he choose to do this, despite earning a regular salary?
He uses the money earned from cleaning bathrooms to help educate underprivileged children in Tamil Nadu.
Loganathan, who hails from Kannampalayam in Coimbatore, just wants to do his bit to help people. “I go to orphanages to provide money or books to the children. I also give Rs 10,000 to the collector every year for government orphanages. I have helped more than 1,600 students get education,” he says.
He’s done this since 2002. “I was working in a private company, doing welding work for them, when I started cleaning toilets for half an hour after work. They used to pay me Rs 50 extra for this job,” says Loganathan.
Soon, he started cleaning toilets for other private companies for a few hours after work and that Rs 50 slowly turned to Rs 2000. “I would save all that money in a bank account and give it to some poor family or orphanage,” he says.
Due to financial constraints, Loganathan could only study until Class 6. This has been one of the main factors motivating his charity. “I have seen tough days in my life; I started working in paper mills and workshops from the age of 12. I learnt welding at these workshops.”
So how does he know who is in need of dire financial help? “Since 2002, newspapers have been publishing stories about me. Now a lot of people know me, and they call me and tell me if there is any family or orphanage that needs my assistance.”
Last year, Loganathan decided to start a workshop of his own, that mainly deals with welding work. “I started my own business because I have always been scared of getting terminated from work … If that happened, I would not have been able to help others,” he says.
Nevertheless, despite having his own workshop, he continued cleaning toilets. “In the evening, for one-and-a-half hours, I clean toilets at a private hospital and they pay me Rs 500 per month.”
He has seen a fair share of criticism for cleaning bathrooms. “Many people ask me why am I doing this job. But don’t we clean our own toilets in our houses? I don’t think any job is small … And when it can help people, then why should I shy from doing it?” he asks.
“I will continue helping people till I die. I am not aiming to make a huge impact here. I just want to do small things that help people,” he shrugs. “And I believe that by seeing what I do, one or two people will start doing charity.”