Deepa has been living in a cramped and crumbling house with her mother Janaki, grandmother and her two childrenKannur: Life has never treated Uppala Valappil Deepa fairly. She has fought through financial and relational stress but once her emotional pain came to a boiling point, it spilled over into violence. Now, in the eyes of the general public, she is a cruel woman who beat up her 90-year-old grandmother.
The video of the assault has left social media users fuming, but nobody knew what exactly drove her to the impulsive and unthinkable act.
“If there was somebody who cared to listen to my problems, this should not have happened,” Deepa says with a pang of guilt after she vented her frustration and anger on the elderly woman.
The 39-year-old was arrested after the video of the incident, shot by her neighbours in which she was seen repeatedly beating up her grandmother Kalyani Amma, was shared widely on social networking sites. The Kannur city police booked her under Section 323 (causing voluntary harm) of the Indian Penal Code.
Deepa has been living in a cramped and crumbling house with her mother Janaki, grandmother and her two children. Following the incident, the police shifted Kalyani Amma and Janaki to a shelter home in Athani. After recording her arrest, the police released Deepa on station bail.
Deepa said she was frustrated by her own helplessness and that she did it on the spur of the moment. Deepa says that she acted violently because of some 'inconsiderate' neighbours.
“I don’t get angry for no reason. In fact, I was provoked into violence. I know what I did is unjustifiable. But I’m a human being and sometimes I too fail to keep my emotions in check. I was feeling isolated and depressed and I didn’t have anybody to talk to about the mental trauma I was going through,” she says.
Their house on the three-cent plot is in a dilapidated condition and the family has been living in extreme poverty. It has been a constant struggle for Deepa to feed the family of five and fund the education of her two children who are in class V and class II.
Deepa has been shouldering the entire burden of the family after her husband left home about seven years ago. She had worked as a helper at a tailoring shop in Kannur city for a while. As the workplace is far away from her home, she used to get back home late. Deepa left that job and stopped going out after her daughter was attacked under cover of darkness while she was away. Ever since, they have been living in constant fear and abject poverty.
Though the family has no source of income, they belong to the above poverty line (APL) category even as some of their neighbours who own multi-storied houses and cars are in the Below Poverty Line (BPL) list.
The five-member family is surviving on the two kilograms of rice provided monthly to APL cardholders. They are thankful to some charitable institutions in the area who help them stay afloat.
“Nobody is bothered about our plight. We are forced to live a life of humiliation, abuses and isolation. I had thought about killing myself and children. I always feel that if there was somebody to share my problems, I would have found some relief from my worries," Deepa says in a voice choked with emotion.
Read more: Latest Kannur news
