Rehabilitation of the marginalised must be sustainable for it to have a life-changing impact, feels Sandeep Nanduri, a Tamil Nadu-cadre IAS officer of the 2009 batch who has been there, done that. Around three years ago, when, as the district collector and magistrate of Thoothukudi in Tamil Nadu, he decided to act on the petitions of groups of differently abled and transgender people, he knew that he had to focus on their livelihood options. He did this by helping them with their independent ventures—a café for the former and a milk cooperative for the latter. Today, he is no longer the collector of Thoothukudi—he is currently the director, tourism, and managing director of the Tamil Nadu Tourism Development Corporation—but both the ventures have outgrown the need for handholding that he had to do.
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Sandeep Nanduri: Tracking A Civil Servant’s Goodness
Tamil Nadu-cadre IAS officer helped set up two social projects—a café by the differently abled and a milk cooperative by transgender individuals—in Thoothukudi district. Both the projects have now come into their own