'Namma Ooru Sandhai': Kovai’s Sunday market reopens after two years

COIMBATORE:  After a two-year break due to the Covid-19 pandemic, ‘Namma Ooru Sandhai’ was held at Corporation Higher Secondary School in North Coimbatore on Sunday.

In this Sandhai, Coimbatore-based farmers and producers of crops, millets, and rice varieties set up shops and sell their products directly to the customers without the intervention of the middlemen. The market, organised by NGO Iyalvagai, will be held from 10 am to 4 pm on the second Sunday of every month.

M Ashok Kumar, a member of Iyalvaagai, said, “The market bridges the gap between the producers and the consumers without the intervention of the middlemen. The customers will be charged Rs 20 for the storage containers when they buy oil items from the market.”

B Murugan from Singanallur, who sells wooden toys in the Sandhai, said, “The traditional wooden toys are facing a slow death in the era of plastic toys and I am trying to reintroduce this to this current generation. We are making these toys using neem wood to make it more affordable than the costlier karunkali wood.”

On the other hand, long before the state government enforced a ban on single-use plastic in 2019, the Namma Ooru Sandhai successfully established the practice of banning plastic and managed to hold on to it amidst all practical difficulties, since its inception April 2018. After purchase, the product are wrapped in butter sheets, brown covers, or cloth bags instead of plastic bags.