With no shelter or land, 44 tribal families survive on a riverbank in Kannur’s Aralam for 16 years
Although applications have been submitted repeatedly since 2008, none has been acted upon.
Although applications have been submitted repeatedly since 2008, none has been acted upon.
Although applications have been submitted repeatedly since 2008, none has been acted upon.
Kannur: From a one-year-old child to a 100-year-old woman named Velichi, around 60 people have been sleeping on a riverbank in Kerala's Kannur for the past 16 years. In a place where king cobras and wild elephants can appear without warning, they live without even a hut or a tarpaulin sheet for shelter. Their names do not figure in the government’s extreme poverty list or even the voters’ list, simply because they have no house and no land.
Forty-four families belonging to the Paniya tribal community live on the banks of the Vietnam stream in Block 13, Section 55 of Aralam, which is described as Asia’s largest tribal rehabilitation area. Though everyone from the Scheduled Tribe promoter to the district collector is aware of their plight, no concrete steps have been taken. The families continue to live on the hope held out by government officials that land titles will be granted soon.
The only relief they receive is 30 kg of ration rice per family every month. At night, a torchlight is their only source of illumination. They sleep on the riverbank, spreading mats and worn-out clothes. These families earlier lived in the Aralam Chathiroor 110 Colony. When life there became unbearable, they applied to the Tribal Resettlement and Development Mission (TRDM), seeking land in the rehabilitation area. They have been waiting ever since.
Although applications have been submitted repeatedly since 2008, none have been acted upon. Many who applied after them have already been allotted land. A decision has now been taken to issue land titles to 126 people, but even in that list, their names do not appear.
Birth and death on the riverbank
Life becomes even more miserable during the monsoon. When the river swells, the families put up temporary sheds on nearby farmland. The elderly and the sick are carried on people’s shoulders. Pregnant women suffer the most. There have been cases where women delivered babies on the riverbank itself because ambulances arrived too late.
When Mir Muhammed Ali was the district collector, steps were taken to grant land titles to these families. However, the process came to a halt after he was transferred. Attempts were made to seek a response from the current collector, Arun K Vijayan, but he did not respond.