Thankamma with mother Surya's photograph(Even as the mob lynching of a starving tribesman in Attappadi roils Kerala, indigenous communities elsewhere are languishing in administrative apathy and social hostility. A look into the lesser known fatalities plaguing tribal hamlets close to the state capital. This is the second part of a series.)
The Kerala government earmarked about Rs 5,000 crore for tribal development in the last 10 years. If the government had just divided the money among the 4,84,839 tribal people in the state, each of them would have been entitled to over Rs 1 lakh.
Where did all this money go? Why do the tribal community still go hungry after the launch of innumerable welfare programs?
A series of suicides in the tribal hamlets of the Peringammala panchayat has not shaken the administrators out of their slumber. At least 34 people, including seven persons from the Scheduled Castes, have committed suicide in the last six years. The families find it hard to explain the sudden departure of their dear ones.
The death of a 17-year-old zoology student turned the spotlight on the plight of the adivasis. From tribal development minister A K Balan to opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala, the political leadership acknowledged the problem and paid the family a visit.
The National Commission for Scheduled Tribes and the state legislative assembly committee for tribal welfare visited the house of Veena, who was found hanging on a tree near her house in August.
Within three months, a 25-year-old man in a nearby village committed suicide. Surya was found hanging on a cocoa tree near his house. His mother Thankamma said that her son showed no signs of distress the previous day. She had cooked her lunch and fried a fish for him. After lunch he asked mother for money and got Rs 60. He went somewhere and did not return until late in the evening. Thankamma went to her daughter’s house nearby to spend the night. When she returned around 6 am, she found her youngest son hanging.
Surya lost his palm in a firecracker accident a few years ago. His father died three years ago. Thankamma was looking after him since the accident.
Recurring tragedies
Surya’s Eeyyakkode hamlet was in for more shocks. Anish, aged 32, was found hanging on a jackfruit tree near his house on November 22. His mother Sumathi said that she could not fathom why her son took the extreme measure.
Anish's (inset) mother SumathiThe youngest of Sumathi’s two sons, Anish supported his family by taking up odd jobs including rubber tapping. He had had his share of fun but he was not an alcoholic, his mother averred.
Read first part of the series: 34 suicides in six years! Why are the tribal people falling by the wayside?
The alarming rise in suicides in the tribal belt remains unexplained. Elders in the community said that they were never taken into confidence by the authorities.
A family in the Kattilakkuzhi village was left orphaned by the sudden departure of Bhaskaran a year ago. The 46-year-old rubber tapper was known to be an enterprising man. He would wake up at 3 in the morning every day and go to the rubber plantation to work. He even owned about 100 rubber trees, which he had leased out for slaughter tapping.
Bhaskaran's (inset) wife UliThe money he raised so was used to repay his debts, said his wife Uli, who is struggling to support her family by taking up whatever job offered under the rural employment guarantee scheme. The woman from Vithura has passed pre-degree from the Iqbal College at Peringammala.
At 45 years of age, Uli has three sons. The oldest one is aged 22 and has fathered two children. The other boys are aged 16 and 11.
Like Veena, Suresh Babu was only 17 years old when he committed suicide. His father Satheesh Babu can’t complete a sentence when he remembers his son. Suresh Babu had gone to work in an automobile workshop in Thiruvananthapuram after passing the 10th standard.
Suresh Babu's (inset) father Satish BabuBack home, he started loitering around with his friends. The youngsters often went inside the forest. Satheesh Babu said that he chided his son because he was concerned about his safety.
The youngster stayed late inside the forest on January 26, 2017. When he returned he got a mouthful from his father. The next day, he was found hanging inside the shed near the plot the family cultivated.
Satheesh Babu said that the boy had always helped him with farming and tree climbing.
Almost everyone in the Eeyyakkott tribal village has lost someone. We were about to wind up our travel through the hamlet when our guide, Balakrishnan Kani, told us that his son had also committed suicide three years ago.
The 26-year-old Sudheesh had passed 10th standard and trained himself in driving. He was working as a rubber tapper. He was close to his mother, who moved with her daughter after the devastating suicide on February 24, 2014. Kani now lives alone.
(To be continued...)
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