Based on lessons learnt from various sources, Elango drew up a detailed five-year plan for the integrated development of Kuthambakkam. This was thoroughly discussed among the villagers at ward and street levels, and accepted after suitable alterations.
1. Eradication of illicit arrack trade
The one compelling reason, Elango went back to his village was the fact that women were beaten up, humiliated and exploited by their alcoholic husbands every night. With assistance from the local police and newspapers, Elango was able to bring about a change the Gandhian way. Boys from the Loyola College helped by performing street plays. After years of persistence, the men agreed to quit alcohol provided they were given alternative means of employment. Elango gave this rehabilitated lot of more than 200 families employment in putting infrastructure (houses, drains and roads) in place for the entire village. From among the most notorious villages for illicit arrack trade in Tamil Nadu five years ago, Kuthambakkam now figures at the bottom end of the
list.
2. Low-cost compressed mud-block housing:
The Panchayat started its work with the establishment of a ``Samathuvapuram" (a township of equality) of 50 twin-houses (now one of the 6 hamlets of Kuthambakkam) in October 2000. A Harijan family and a non-harijan family live together in every twin-house. There are 216 huts still left in the village which will be converted into mud-block houses in the next one year. The villagers will be responsible for laying the foundation and building the walls at their own cost. The government will help with the roof tiles, doors and
windows.
3. Roads and street lighting
Unlike in the cities, village roads are used not merely for transportation. The space is used for socializing by the men and women folk in the evenings; gets converted into children's playgrounds during vacations and clean plinths for drying grains during the harvest seasons. The rehabilitated families laid good interior concrete roads in every part of the village at a low cost. With government support, all highway and union roads were also repaired, and re-laid, where necessary.
4. Rain Water Harvesting and Water Supply
The Panchayat has desilted and deepened six ponds in and around the village, as a result of which, the water table does not go below 13 feet even during the summers. An overhead water tank has been constructed, and a water pump installed in every hamlet. These are connected to every house cluster.
5. Self-help groups (SHGs)
18 women's SHGs have been formed, which are being trained to undertake income-generating activities. 130 boys have now come forward to form self-help groups.
6. Literacy and Education
The illiteracy rate in Kuthambakkam is as high as 60% among women. A local balwadi has been constructed as part of the Samathuvapuram. The village has two primary schools and one upper primary school. Primary education enrollment is 100%, with a 99% dropout after the 8th grade due to the distance to the school. The villagers have built toilets for these schools. Elango has been motivating the teachers to refrain from child beating or any form of harsh punishment for the children. The village has an Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) education centre equipped with a television, which benefits the village youth. Planning is underway to start the village's own high school along Gandhiji's "Nai Talim" model of education.
7. Employment generation
Small-scale rural industries are being set up to provide permanent employment to the rehabilitated families. The village has trained 90 women in making woven leather shoe uppers, for a shoe company in Mumbai. These women earn a monthly salary of not less than Rs.2, 000 each. Another unit has about 12 women making jute products like bags, footwear and folders for export.
8. Information Center and Computer Education Center
The TNF (USA), is helping set up an information center by donating six computers, and training the village women in operating them.

In spite of a functional infrastructure and willingness of the villagers to cooperate with the Panchayat to make their village a model village, hunger still remains a persistent problem. The families rehabilitated from the illicit arrack brewing trade were temporarily employed in reconstructing the village. Now, they go hungry and are waiting for alternatives. The Panchayat is now working towards making Kuthambakkam a hunger-free village in one year. The plan is to revive traditional (organic) farming on unutilized and abandoned lands, and establish several small-scale rural industries, which will employ the villagers, who will be trained in production as well as their maintenance. Several auxiliary units can operate around these.
The rural industries will, to the extent possible, be land- (agro-) based; use of locally available raw-materials and indigenous knowledge; cater to the local market; meet the basic needs of villagers - food, clothing and shelter - to attain self-sufficiency; be diverse; work on a cooperative model through men and women SHGs without the interference of the state or the central government; be heavily dependent on human power; be environment-friendly.
That Elango has been re-elected in the 2001 elections with zero campaign cost speaks for the faith the villagers have placed on him. He and his community have placed Kuthambakkam on the map as a model village. Now if only we had more Elangos.