Mechai Viravaidya is a master problem-solver. How else could he have survived years of public service in the mine fields of sex education and population control, winning numerous local and international accolades along the way?

At his home, I ask him about his approach to problem solving. He responds enthusiastically, using the image of a river meeting a dam.

"Would it be possible for the water to seep underneath to emerge at the other side, or overflow," he asks, suggestively. "Or could it turn to vapour and gather at the other end as rainfall?"

Lateral thinking is Mechai's secret, famously applied back in 1973 when the Population and Community Development Association (PDA), where he sits as chairman, met obstructions in its attempt to promote birth-control pills to rural people. With not enough doctors to distribute the prescription-only pills, the PDA arranged training for nurses so they could issue prescriptions, then extended the training to lower-level health workers. Despite this, only 20 per cent of the population were covered, so the PDA went a further step by training the wives of village shopkeepers across the nation.

Then, when some women were reluctant to use the pill for fear of nausea, Buddhist monks were invited to bless the pills with holy water. Once word spread that the blessed pills caused no nausea, the project got a boost. Condoms came into play later, when the PDA invited 320,000 teachers across the country to join a condom balloon-blowing festival.

While the birth rate has been reduced from 3.3 per family to 0.6, the PDA has kept up its promotion of the use of condoms to help prevent the spread of HIV/Aids.

Mechai remains unapologetic in the face of accusations that by handing out condoms he's encouraging teens to have sex prematurely.

"Sex education is necessary and kids should know how to protect themselves from disease. HIV/Aids is spreading fast, how can we treat it as if it weren't there," asks Mechai, who vows to continue the fight in the face of what he sees as the government's inadequate efforts in sex education.

"We can't focus solely on treatment. We have to act on preventing it."

And when it comes to responsible family planning, Mechai has practised at home what he's preached in public: He has just one daughter. Fielding my questions in the comfort of his living room, he demonstrates his commitment by handing his grandchildren, one-year-old twins, condom "balloons" which they happily grasp. "We've been doing this for three generations," he says.

But Mechai's unique style extends beyond population control, which accounts for only a small percentage of his work with the PDA.

Lately he's been finding alternative ways for business, both local and foreign, to contribute to society.

"Giving money to the poor is like giving money to beggars. It's like we are teaching them how to get better at begging. Without giving them jobs and teaching them how to do the jobs, how will they stand on their own feet?"

Chief among his ideas is getting participating companies to set up production in villages, where local employees would be entitled to buy shares in the business at special rates. This would guarantee the villagers' hard work and provide a measure of job security, making them less dependant on government assistance and better able to afford education for their children.

The PDA has also helped set up Village Development Committees - village working groups of youngsters, elders and village bank representatives, which solicit funds from private companies. These are then loaned out to villagers through the village bank enabling them to start businesses of their own. Mechai believes that business expertise and money, rather than welfare handouts, is the route out of poverty.

"The poor don't have the chance to obtain loans at market rates. Businessmen can give them ideas and provide the loans," he says.

So far, PDA has built up a network of 150 companies for the scheme, and Mechai believes that the 500-odd companies listed on the Thai stock exchange could be encouraged to join with a special tax rebate for social contribution.

Then there's the PDA's nine-year-old Village Youth Government Scheme aimed at giving the under-25 age group in villages control over their lives, with the responsibility of electing a leader every year and financing projects within a budget. There is an equal number of men and women on the committee.

Mechai is satisfied with the results: Senior committee members are being approached by villagers to become members of tambon administrative bodies, the start, he hopes, of a new generation of politicians who recognise the importance of transparency and equality.

Education is another area Mechai is applying his unorthodox approach to. The government's strict reading, writing and arithmetic method should be scrapped, he says, because children are more easily taught about things they are naturally interested in. This theory is being tried out in one school, where children are being provided with free education and their parents are helping out with the cooking and cleaning.

Elsewhere, Mechai and the PDA have created job opportunities for villagers by training them to run call centres for Bangkok-based companies, introducing a buddy system so that the elderly and the disabled can join in.

So, nearing the end of the interview, there's just one question that remains unanswered: Where does this creative dynamo get all his energy from? Mechai says his parents constantly encouraged him to "think outside the box". His father was the only one in the family to marry a foreigner - a Scot - and Mechai was given freedom to choose his religion.

And thinking outside the box has earned him many honours: the Ramon Magsaysay Award for public services in 1994, the United Nations Population Award in 1997 and a place among the 20 Greatest Asians in Asiaweek, alongside Deng Xiao Ping, Li Ka Shing and Lee Kwan Yew in '95. The latest recognition came from Time magazine, where he was one of only two Thais in a list of the 100 greatest figures of the past 60 years - the other was His Majesty the King.

Approaching his 66th year - an age when most men want nothing more than a peaceful retirement with their family - Mechai is vowing to continue working for rural people. With so many accolades, he no longer cares about public acclaim. He just wants to think up new ideas, and have them succeed.

Achara Deboonme,

Chularat Saengpassa

The Nation