How Village Bells Foundation is empowering tribal villages in Tamil Nadu

Born into a family of farmers in Ayakudi, a lush village in Tamil Nadu’s Dindigul district, Gowtham Kannan chose to move to Chennai and study engineering at Anna University. 

A cushy job with a high salary followed, but city life, enclosed within concrete and cement, left him with an ache in his heart. He longed to live a life closer to nature, and this calling took him back home. He moved back to Ayakudi along with his wife Nivedha Venkatesan to take up organic farming and forge a new path in life.

Life was moving along normally until a series of debilitating headaches led to a diagnosis that shook him and his family: a brain tumour.    Instead of succumbing to despair, Kannan and his wife chose to reimagine their lives through natural foods, holistic living, and resilience. 

Convinced that lifestyle changes were his only chance at survival, Kannan altered his diet and habits. “Nature is the medicine,” he says. Together with his wife, he explored traditional foods and transformed their lifestyle. Slowly, the cancerous growth began to stabilise.

This second chance at life changed Kannan’s life into one of introspection.

“It was God’s way of asking what I wanted to do with my life,” he tells SocialStory. The realisation, and the leap forward, would lead to Village Bells Foundation in 2018, a grassroots initiative that has now transformed more than 50 tribal villages across Tamil Nadu.

Kannan had always carried within him a deep empathy for others. After his health improved, he and Nivedha started cooking and distributing meals to elderly and destitute people living on the streets.

“We served them with all that we could. We fed them… but truly, they filled our inner emptiness,” recalls Nivedha. Slowly, Village Bells Foundation broadened its impact with a mission of empowering people who struggled due to poverty, isolation, and systemic neglect.

How the pandemic became a turning point

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the couple discovered that families in Kutti Karudu, a hamlet, survived for more than a week on only black tea. When they visited the settlement with government permission, they were confronted by stark realities. The inhabitants had no proper shelter, clothing, electricity, medical access, and very little food.

In the beginning, the villagers were wary about their intentions, and hesitant to trust them. But Kannan and Nivedha did not give up—they returned again, and again, with food, clothes and helping out with building simple homes. Slowly, they began to gain trust.

While the material needs were being met, they also began to see the deeper issues existing in these communities. Child marriage, superstition, patriarchy, and the absence of formal education kept them on the margins.

For Kannan, the solution was clear: “Education is the only way these communities can break cycles of deprivation,” he notes.

Empowering through education

Village Bells started with adopting villages and providing basic necessities, then expanded into education and skills development. 

Today, the initiative supports:

• Over 2,000 tribal families across 50 villages in Dindigul district.
• Free higher education scholarships for more than 100 tribal students.
• Skills training partnerships with companies like Guvi, Freshworks, and JusPay.

The impact is visible. A tribal girl from the Paliyar community, which had no government job representation even decades after independence, now works at an international company. Another student scored 511 out of 600 in her Class 12 exams and is preparing for government service.

“Changing one student’s life is changing the history of an entire community,” says Kannan with pride.

Another young girl Buvana lives in a remote tribal village, where her parents have to walk 5 km every day for daily wage jobs. One has to travel 135 km from Palani town into the hill region to reach their village. Through Village Bells’ help, Buvana is now studying for a BA in Tamil.

The road ahead

For the couple, Village Bells is not just an NGO, it’s a movement of empathy. The circle of “giving” extends to many of their friends from well-wishers from India and abroad, who support the Foundation’s projects in education, housing, and healthcare.

Recognition and awards have followed, but for Kannan and Nivedha, these are just milestones, not endpoints. “Every challenge reminds us that we are on the right path,” he says.

The couple believes government schemes for tribal welfare must reach deeper and faster. Until then, they are committed to walking alongside the communities they serve—patiently, persistently, and with dignity.

“Our work is to empower those who have lost their strength. And when one family rises, an entire community begins to dream,” says Kannan.