Ayyankali and Panchami adorn speech cover

The colourful painting of social reformer Ayyankali taking Panchami to school, depicted on the cover page of 'State Budget Speech 2019-2020', was the poster of 'Arpo Arthavam', an event which celebrated menstruation held at Kochi on January 13.
The painting is work by Kochi based artist P S Jalaja, which is part of a series '101 Inspiring speeches for Indians (You can't afford to miss)'.The painting tells the story of Panchami, daughter of dalit agriculture labourers, who was denied education at school in Ooruttambalam and social reformer Ayyankali took her to school for admission.
The artist had given her water colour painting for the poster of Arpo Arthavam, which was unveiled by activist Sunny M Kapikkad and Kovan in a function held in November.
"The finance minister himself informed me that my work has been selected for the cover painting of the Budget Speech. My painting of Ayyankali and Panchami, which tells the story of a revolt for the fundamental right is still relevant. But, I believe the people are yet to accept the values of renaissance and paintings are my way of addressing these issues," said Jalaja.
Congratulating the artist, finance minister Thomas Isaac said that the search for cover painting of Budget speech book concluded at the painting of P S Jalaja, which included renaissance leader Ayyankali and Panchami.
"Ayyankali has a prominent place among our renaissance leaders. And it was also decided to include the works of women artists on the cover page of Budget documents," said Isaac in his social media page.
In addition to the Budget Speech book, the cover painting of other Budget documents have the works of noted women artists. The cover page of Report of the Kerala Public Expenditure Review Committee was a painting by Amrita Sher Gil and Medium Term Fiscal Policy and Strategy Statement with Medium Term Fiscal Plan for Kerala and Gender and Child Budget by T K Padmini. The artist Godfrey Das designed the cover of all the documents.