Every year Lalithamma would donate her year-long savings for the festival at the nearby Areekkode temple. The savings are from her meagre earnings from the Rs 1,200 monthly pension and wages from working under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS).
This year, the temple festival was not held due to the lockdown restrictions owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. Lalithamma, however, didn’t have a second thought and donated the savings to the Chief Minister’s Distress Relief Fund (CMDRF).
The 70-year-old lives alone in a single-room shed at Arinallur in Thevalakkara panchayat of Kollam district. She used to work in a cashew nut factory till 2009.