In 2018, the Kerala government rolled out an ambitious project to provide safe, cost-effective and clean accommodation to travelling women in all the 14 districts.
The project, titled She Lodges, was piloted at Thiruvananthapuram Corporation with a 20 bed facility utilising the urban local body’s plan fund.
A month later, Thrissur got a 44-bed facility with the Kudumbashree Mission, government’s poverty eradication project, managing its day-to-day affairs and maintenance.
Next in line was a 12-bed facility in Kanhangad, which lies 25km south of district headquarters of Kasaragod. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan inaugurated the building on February 19, 2019. Ninteen months have passed since the grand opening ceremony held as part of the Vijayan-led previous Left Democratic Front (LDF) government’s 1000-day plan, but the lodge has not opened its doors to the women travellers so far.
“The building that houses the ‘She Lodge’ was embroiled in a legal issue. Later, COVID-19 scuttled our plans. Now we are planning to open it by early next year,” said municipal chairperson K V Sujatha.
Kanhangad was the first municipality in the State to announce the setting up of accommodation for women travellers soon after the government unveiled its plan. CPM leader V V Rameshan, who unsuccessfully contested from Manjeswaram Assembly constituency for the LDF in 2021, was the chairperson of the municipality at that time.
Political trouble
The municipality had spent Rs 45 lakh from its plan fund to set up the facility at the new three-storied bus stand complex. It had even entered into an agreement with the Kudumbashree to run the facility, which has six fully air conditioned, double occupancy beds.
The complex was built in 2010 when the United Democratic Front (UDF) ruled the local body. The municipal council had framed a bylaw to lease out the commercial space, which turned out to be the bone of contention between the ruling UDF and the opposition Left Democratic Front (LDF).
The victory of LDF in the 2015 local election complicated the scenario. The new municipal council cancelled and revised the bylaw prepared by its predecessor. But the revised bylaw received a cold response from merchants because they had to deposit huge amounts as guarantee (Rs 15 lakh each for rooms in ground floor and Rs 10 lakh for rooms in first floor). UDF objected to the council’s decision in the Kerala High Court in 2019. Meanwhile, LDF retained the municipality in the 2020 local body polls and CPM leader Sujatha was anointed as the chairperson. The court recently dismissed the UDF petition and ratified the previous council’s action. Three auctions after the verdict too failed to attract the merchants.
The cold response has prompted the council to change the lease bylaw one more time. “We redrafted the bylaw one more time to woo the merchants. The deposit amount has now been slashed to half,” chairperson Sujatha said.
She said the municipality will redraft the bylaw for the She Lodge to ensure its opening by January 2022. “Opening the lodge is our main agenda,” she said.
She said the municipality has been maintaining the lodge since its official inauguration in 2019. “The cleaning staff from the municipality has been keeping the fully furnished facility neat and tidy. We are ready to open it anytime,” she said.
Condition of other ‘She Lodges’
Even as Kanhangad municipality was struggling to set up the facility, nine other municipal councils, despite announcing the projects a bit later, successfully launched women-only accommodation facilities.
The lodges in Chengannur (Alappuzha district), Muvattupuzha, Thripunithura (Ernakulam), Kunnamkulam, Chavakkad, Thrissur (Thrissur), Perinthalmanna (Malappuram), Vadakara (Kozhikode) and Mattannur (Kannur) brimmed with visitors before travel restrictions came into force in the wake of the COVID-19.
All the facilities are run by the Kudumbashree Mission.
“There are two types of She Lodges in the State,” explained Jahangir, project officer with the Kudumbashree Mission. “Urban local bodies run some facilities on their own. The She Lodge in Thiruvananthapuram is run by the city corporation. Some municipalities seek our support to run the facilities. Currently we manage the She Lodges in nine municipalities,” he said.
