Deprivation 2021 Page 1_Layout 1 12-01-2021 10:44 Page 1

THE WORD FRIDAY JANUARY 15, 2021 CCOOVVEERRIINNGG DDEEPPRRIIVVAATTIIOONN LAB JOURNAL OF THE ASIAN COLLEGE OF JOURNALISM

STORIES FROM THE NORTH Pages 2 to 7 | MISCELLANY Pages 8 and 9 | STORIES FROM THE SOUTH Pages 10 to 15 | THE LAST WORD P16 | Farmers still on the warpath J’Khand tribes Delhi continues to be surrounded by protesters from other states NITIKA GANDHI says he is protesting for his nature of the soil had changed, he say Sarna is RIMJHIM SINGH & brothers who he said could be adds. S N THYAGARAJAN “manipulated with the entry of Another contentious point, private players.” according to Shandip, is the dispute NEW DELHI/ CHANDIGARH/ Lakhsweer says the farmers resolution mechanism under the

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H their religion COIMBATORE: Despite the want the government to protect the price assurance clause. “It can AMRIN NAAZ unidentified or be identified as

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cold and a raging pandemic, mandated minimum support price N work only under utopian followers of the six prescribed

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thousands of farmers have been and reform the agricultural produce G circumstances. The disputes will be NOAMUNDI, JHARKHAND : religions.

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gathering everyday for about a marketing committees (APMC) T resolved by a bureaucrat who will The tribal communities of Banra said. “Every religion is

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K month now at Singhu on Delhi’s which are meant to safeguard I understand the corporate Jharkhand have been demanding represented by their own codes

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border, to protest against the three farmers from exploitation. T representative, not the farmer.” recognition of the Sarna Code, a based on their beliefs and practices.

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new farm laws. The bills, passed in The three laws are the Farmers' D Seventy-year-old Sivanesan distinct religion that aligns with Similarly, we should be recognised

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the monsoon parliament session, Produce Trade and Commerce R from Erode, a bank employee- their culture and traditions. as Sarna Dharma followers.”

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stoked resentment among farmers (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, O turned turmeric and paddy farmer, Budhram Chatomba (52), who In a special session on

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who said the new law would favour 2020, which permits the farmers to O however, believes that the laws will belongs to the Ho tribe, said that November 11, the Jharkhand State

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companies looking to edge out sell their produce outside of the P benefit the farmers in the long run. Sarna followers worship nature. Assembly, sent a resolution to the farmers. Men, women and children physical premises of the APMC Arguing that corporatisation of Their culture, tradition and ways of Centre demanding the recognition mainly from Punjab and Haryana market yards; The Farmers agriculture is necessary, he says worship are different from those of of the Sarna Code as a separate gathered with their tractors and (Empowerment and Protection) small and medium farmers, who other religions. As of now the religion for tribal communities. trucks at the Singhu Border. Agreement on Price Assurance and Farmers protesting at the Tikri border in Northern Delhi constitute a huge chunk, cannot census has recognised six religions: Salil Birua (35), a teacher who is According to Lakhweer Singh Farm Services Act, 2020, which afford storage facilities, which are Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Sarna follower, said, “In 1871 we (62), a big, heavily bearded man creates a legal framework for families and 75 are involved in Somandurai Chittur village near “key” to the future of farming. Jain, and Buddhist. fell under the broad umbrella of dressed in khaki kurta and a contract farming through an agriculture. "Most of the families Pollachi. They feel the laws are “They should let the corporates do Chatomba said, “We are ‘Others’. Later, various terms like brightly orange coloured turban, agreement between a farmer and a have huge lands. As many as 90 wrong in undermining the role of it for them,” he says. identified as Hindus. Our beliefs Aboriginal, Forest Tribal, Animist, “the laws are way more favorable buyer before cultivation; and the farmers from our village have middlemen and “homogenising Silmaba Gounder, 66, a farmer are entirely different from that of Primitives and Tribes were towards the corporates and not amendment to the Essential joined the protest", he adds. agriculture across the country.” from Sankagiri, Salem, favours the other religions. There is no introduced. Then again in 1951 we legally or economically Commodities Act, which removes Diljit Pal Singh, 58, a small Paramasivam wonders how, law in parts question of accepting them.” He were counted under ‘Others’. Now empowering the farmers''. items such as cereals, pulses, farmer, says: "People of our village when different crops are . “The middlemen form a big said asking Sarna followers to we are at a point where the census Singh, who is from Punjab potato, onions and edible oilseeds agreed in the panchayat to head to “cultivated every 10 km” in India, a cartel, they should be shown their identify themselves with others was of 2021 will scrap this option too.” state’s Jalandhar district, says the from the list of essential Delhi. My brother has gone while I set of common laws can be made place.” lowering their dignity by not Birua said members of the tribal government has failed to commodities and also the stock stayed back to take care of our for the whole sector. “We have The APMC system has never recognising them as who they are. community who migrated for work understand that about 85 per cent of limits on them. crops." eight coconut harvests a year … we been effective in Tamil Nadu. “Its As per the 2011 census, more to other States were not counted as the farmers are small landholders Some of the farmers who Does he know why the farmers cannot employ a fleet of workers weakening will not impact the than 40 lakh people of Jharkhand tribals. with less than three hectares. “This oppose the law are not familiar are protesting? and pay them throughout. The farmers here. The middlemen, who mentioned their religion as Sarna Ajay Tiriya (37), Secretary of the makes these farmers weak sellers in with the provisions. "My brother has some middleman brings his team which own the private mandis, do not under the ‘others’ option. They Adivasi Association, Noamundi, front of the corporate players who “Had I known the details of the knowledge.All I know is Prime harvests the coconuts,” he explains. respect the farmers … there is have been demanding their own said, “We need our identity that have huge demands to make”. law, I would have joined the Minister Modi has passed some On contract farming, Shandip always discontent over the price [of religion code for a long time. we’ve been denied for a long time. Mahinder Bhagwa, (60), of protests,” says Kripal Singh (69), a laws which will not benefit us in says: “Our experience has been produce].” Another member of the tribal We need Sarna Code to reclaim Ludhiana, Punjab says “The farmer from Sukhgarh village, any way." bad. An MNC asked some farmers In the same breath, he points to community, Shambhu Banra (27) dignity and assert our identity.” Central Government is favouring Mohali, Chandigarh. "My son has About 3,000 km away down to cultivate cocoa a few years ago, the dangers of corporatisation. said there was an apprehension that According to a report published the private companies as they will gone to Delhi. I am not sure he south in west Tamil Nadu, there is promising a good price. Many “The corporates neither speak our the upcoming 2021 census form in The Telegraph, in August, 32 pay huge taxes to the government.” knows what the new law says but a mixed reaction. Paramasivam, 67, earned good money in the short run language nor understand our would no longer include the tribal groups of Jharkhand have Vikas Duggal (38), from he was asked to accompany the and his son Shandip Sabapathy, 34, but eventually made losses.” The troubles.Many farmers may lose ‘Others’ option. This implies that decided to boycott the upcoming Sonipat, Haryana, who is growing farmers and he readily agreed." are Chartered Accountants engaged farmers could not switch to other money if they don’t understand the they would be indirectly forced Census, if it does not recognise

wheat and rice on 11 acres of land, The village has around 120 in coconut farming at the crops immediately because the fine print in the contracts.” either to leave their religion as Sarna as an option.

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Darker times for Kolhapur’s red-light area

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Sex workers lose income, yet to receive ‘promised’ govt assistance

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ESHAN KALYANIKAR out their friends who have no officer, Deepa Shipurkar, said, “they require you to deposit Rs sex workers in the city, used to

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T government ID, by offering their “We have prepared and given the 500 to Rs 1,000 and we can’t pay neighbours Rs 100 a day to

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I KOLHAPUR: Governments in monthly rations. list to the District Women and afford it.” take care of her two children. D

E the country have come to the Some women haven’t been Child Development Office. But According to Yadav, of the Now she leaves them with her

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rescue of people who have lost able to pay even house rent and not all sex workers are registered 1,200 sex workers, 800 of them landlord, who takes care of them O

T work and earnings as a result of some of them are single mothers, with us.” live in the city, and the others for free, or with Sharada Yadav, O

H the pandemic. Not so lucky are says Pinki. An organisation of sex come from nearby villages. whom she fondly calls P the sex workers of Kolhapur. The State government workers, Sakhi Sanghatan, has The women stand at street aai(mother). Migrant workers leaving Delhi after the lockdown was A 27-year-old woman, who announced additional monthly 1,200 members including Rani corners in Laxmipuri Pan line Yadav, as head of the imposed across the country by the Centre. gave her name as Rani, with two support of Rs 2,500 for sex and Pinki. Its president, Sharada late in the night. As soon as they Sanghatan, has a strict policy not children aged 7 and 3, says she is workers with children, Rs 5,000 Yadav, says many sex workers in get clients, they go to the nearest to allow minor girls to work in not making enough money in her for all sex workers along with the city are unwilling to register lodge they have a tie-up with. It’s the city. “We even discourage profession. To make matters monthly rations of three kg of with the DAPCU. For, doing so, not a legal arrangement but an first-time sex workers; we know No work, migrants worse, she is left out of monthly wheat and two kg of rice. they believe, will mean open secret. what we face on an everyday direct benefits scheme for sex Responding to complaints, admission of their involvement in Narrating her ordeal, Rani basis and we wouldn’t want this workers, and additional benefits District Women and Child the trade. says that when she was 17, living life for anyone.” for mothers in the trade, Development Officer Sujata Yadav, once a sex worker in Pune, her friend spiked her soft Pinki says all sex workers have head for the cities announced by the Maharashtra Shinde, said, “The funds are not herself, says she is trying to drink and sent her, inebriated, an understanding _ older women MAYANK KUMAR who returned to their home states, Government in November last. yet disbursed to anyone, we are convince the women to register with a client. She then decided to like her get to work throughout the Central Government told the The benefits are only for those cross-checking the list [of sex with the DAPCU, and get other continue in the trade and ran off the day and the younger ones in SITAMARHI: Ajay Mohan Lok Sabha on September 14. registered with the District AIDS workers] with us. Many don’t documentation done for them to to Kolhapur. Since then, she has the evening. Thakur, 37, is waiting at Sitamarhi Among those who have returned Prevention and Control Unit even have bank accounts. We are obtain an Aadhar and a ration had no contact with her family. “All women have been railway station to board a train to a is Shamsuddin (23), a resident of (DAPCU). Like Rani, several not asking for any ID proof but card, with the help of the “I had a husband. He was a wearing masks these days. Their city he swore he would never go Mehsaul village in Sitamarhi women remain unregistered. just bank details.” DWCDO. But the problem, she former client and we got married. masks are down before the back to. district. “I used to work as a Pinki (name changed),55, is Shinde said additional benefits says, is that many women have But he wasn’t good to me or our customer approaches them so he Thakur was forced to leave plumber in Faridabad,” he said. He one of the few sex workers with a would be given to mothers until no supporting documentation. children, so I left him,” says can see their face; it is pulled up Mumbai in June this year because survived five months on savings ration card. She says she and their children completed 14. Even women with documents Rani. again when the customer is he lost his job as a superintendent and then had to make the trek back. others like her have been helping The DAPCU programme can’t open a bank account as Earlier, Rani, like many other physically close,” she said. in a handloom factory due to the He now works as a bus conductor, pandemic. a job from which he earns Rs 8,000 “I had vacated my room, paid all a month as opposed to the Rs dues, and set out on the 1000 km 25,000 he earned in Faridabad. journey on a migrant special train. After returning from Bengaluru, I was annoyed and demoralized,’’ Satish Kumar, 31, was relieved to Non-political is the new normal in Chellanam he said.But months after being get a job under MGNREGA. jobless, he had to give in to the However, he has not yet received Entrusted with hopes of people, Chellanam 2020 has some big shoes to fill inevitable. He had to go back. his wages under the scheme. “It has “When you do not have enough been four months, I was hoping AISWARYA RAJ worst sea incursion and floods in years hit party, but in this election, we voted for money to feed your family, one has MGNREGA would sustain my Chellanam five months ago. Chellanam 2020,” said Mariamma George, to surrender,” he said. “I promised family during the lockdown, but we KOCHI: People in Chellanam, a fishing “We found that protests were futile unless president of Janakeeya Vedi.

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myself, I would never return. I was are struggling now and planning to village on the outskirts of Kochi, showed we could mobilize on a large scale people R After cyclone Ockhi hit the coast in 2017,

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very angry but it all melts away as return,” said Kumar their dissatisfaction with the two major devoid of political leanings. We knew that Y the walls that prevented the waves from

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savings end,” he added. Ramsharan Aggarwal, a political alliances in Kerala by voting them any change was impossible if we were a part A flooding the houses, have been collapsing.

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Sitamarhi, a district in Bihar on professor of Political Science at a out in favour of a non-political group, of the government apparatus,” he said. S “The sea floods our houses frequently.No

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the India-Nepal border, houses local college said “The state Chellanam 2020 in the recently concluded About the basic amenities they had been : one from the Panchayat has come to

T some 3.4 million people. According government has completely local body elections. Years of neglect and missing out on for several years, Biju said I ascertain the intensity of these frequent

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to the Patna based A N Sinha ignored industrial development in lack of government intervention in resolving "We have insufficient facilities currently in R incursions. We are hopeful of Chellanam

C Institute of Social Studies, 80 the last 15 years, there are no their problems including sea erosion led the the hospital and will set up a hospital with a 2020 doing something,” said Annie George,

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percent of the population in the industries, therefore no work.” villagers to choose the group. casualty ward.” O a 72-year-old woman

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district is dependent on agriculture. Primal Kumar, District The villagers hoped the representatives The group secured eight out of 21 seats in P A few geo-tubes, which trap sand inside There are not many industries in Information Officer, said “We have fielded by the politically neutral group, the Panchayat and second position in four it and curb sea erosion, were found on the this district, apart from a sugarcane provided jobs to more than 10,000 Chellanam 2020 would solve their problems, wards in their maiden attempt. The ruling Posters of Chellanam 2020 coast. But they were ineffective, said Xavier. factory and a few small industries. people under the Garib Kalyan said A.G. Xavier, a 57-year-old fisherman. Left alliance won nine seats and the “Waves crash over the tubes and inundate But the COVID-19 pandemic Rojgar Abhiyan in 25 work areas or Chellanam 2020 was formed after a group Congress alliance secured four. elections as it wishes to focus on the region the houses. These tubes are to be laid in a and the resulting job loss, affected projects related to meet the needs of youth came together on Facebook to “Our victory shows how the locals were and its people. contiguous manner. A few of them placed that. Thousands of people had to of the villages like plantations, discuss the issues faced by the locals. Charles dissatisfied with the existing politics,” said. The locals have been demanding walls to like this will not have any impact,” he said. return back, walking along rural roads, Jal Jeevan mission and Biju, president of Chellanam 2020, said that Sebastian V. J, the Chellanam 2020 curb sea incursion for more than three years. “The contractor for constructing geo-tube highways because buses and trains other infrastructure projects.” the indifference of the top leaders of the representative who won the Panchayat Dejected, many locals started a protest called was unaware of the technicalities, but the services were often shut. However, despite these schemes mainstream parties made it difficult for the election from 20th ward. Janakeeya Vedi in October 2019. The protest government is not to be blamed,” said Bihar accounted for 1.5 million migrants are going back to the local politicians to ease the plight of the However, the group is uncertain whether is still continuing. K.D.Prasad, the outgoing Panchayat Vice- of the 10.5 million migrant workers cities in search of a livelihood. fisherfolk.The outfit was conceived after the it would contest in the coming assembly “We were supporters of the Congress President and an LDF politician. JANUARY 15, 2021 2 NORTH P 3 A cycle of water woes P 4 Battered, after marriage P 5 No midday meals for 9 months

Homeless in their home Electrification only in SAYANI DAS when they most need the schemes to secure a home. SILIGURI: Indrajeet Chhetri For workers to get the land (48) stood among a brood of rights, the State needs to alter the naJUHmI SEEReNAN I at HMe was afroaid het maiy hsave daone r chicken and puppies on his front Estates Acquisition Act, 1953, to his feet permanent damage, but it yard. He said that his late father had take back non-plantation leased AJMER: Farmers at Motisar got better in a few days. been lured into taking up work in land from the companies and hand village in Rajasthan’s Ajmer According to the Mint article, a the Matigara Tea Estate sixty years it over to the workers. district have turned nocturnal. village is considered electrified if it ago. “‘They give you a house According to Dutta, in 2005, the Sitaram Bansi, (52), who grows possesses basic electrical there’; that’s what they told my then Left government had tried to peas on his fields, treks 2 km in the infrastructure and 10% of its homes father. Little did he know then,” take back non-plantation land from dark to take advantage of have access to power. Chhetri said. the tea estates, but the companies electricity, which comes only at Sitaram went all the way to Chhetri is among the 3-4 lakh tea sought a stay order from the night. Ajmer, which is 20 km away from garden workers in North Bengal The dilapidated house of a tea worker. Photo: Sayani Das Supreme Court. For the past three months, Motisar, where officials heard his who do not own the land they have Dutta said, “Had it been electricity comes only at night and complaint and assured him of been working and living on for wasteland, one would have owned that has been a major problem for improvement but there has been no almost 200 years. temporary and casual workers build accounts with the company or it after living on it for ten years. But Bansi and other farmers. They change. Since his son is paralysed, Sitaram Bansi, a nocturnal Their houses could be taken shacks. through mortgage. Without land these workers won’t own it even work at night in the biting cold. he can’t send him to do farming pea farmer. from them if they stopped working In 2012-13, under the erstwhile papers, they could not receive loans after staying there for 100 years.” Despite not getting power and he is scared of sending his 14- in the gardens for better jobs State Labour Minister, a survey either for housing or health or According to him, the primary supply when he needs it most, year-old daughter at night. Photo: Juhi Seernani elsewhere, or even if the was conducted according to which education. demand of the joint forum, Bansi can consider himself lucky All this is happening even as management changed hands and 95,835 workmen out of 2,62,426 in Permanent workers with quarters representing a group of 28 trade he has any electricity at all. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said much less than the other villages in cut down on labour. the entire Bengal tea belt were not also suffered due to a lack of unions here, is that residential land India still has 14000 villages, in April 2018 that India had the Peesangan area, Motisar is not Ownership of land and housing provided houses by the maintenance and repair in their should be separated from industrial which are nearly a fifth of the total achieved its goal, ahead of given much attention and the security are at the centre of tea management. homes, which is the management’s land on tea estates. An email to the number of villages, yet to be schedule, of providing electricity to problems of the villagers are often garden protests in the Terai and According to the same survey, responsibility. plantation owners went electrified, according to an article every village in the country. ignored. Dooars tea belt for many decades 62 estates did not spend anything Also, these workers do not unanswered. in Mint. According to an employee at the Singh claims that he is doing now. on workers’ housing in 2012. benefit from government housing Dutta warned that land right over Harsh winters Ajmer Electricity Department, it everything he can to help the According to Sudip Dutta, Workers at Chhetri’s village had schemes because they are a plot would not solve all problems. “Winters make it difficult for me has to distribute power to a huge people of Motisar and make the assistant secretary of the Centre of built shacks, wooden houses or recognised as industrial labour Land would not be expandable, as I have arthritis and it is very number of villages. “When we village more developed by Indian Trade Unions (CITU), brick-mortar rooms. But building a under tea companies. while the worker family grows and cold,” Bansi said. make one village happy, we have to constantly asking the government Darjeeling district committee, just house with a wage of Rs 176 per Their above-poverty-line fragments over generations. Once, after one such night time make the other sad. It is how it is,” and the electricity boards to do 30 to 40 percent workers receive day, the lowest rate for tea identity disables them from However, Chhetri said, “Let us visit on a bitterly cold night, Bansi he said on condition of anonymity. something . quarters from their management in plantation workers across India, accessing the Indira Awas Yojana have the land first. Then, like any was terrified to find that his legs Kaaliram Singh, Panchayat By March 2021, there will be most of the gardens in the North isn’t feasible. and the Pradhan Mantri Awas other citizen, let us decide how we suddenly stopped working and he chief of the Peesangan Tehsil, lampposts that would prevent Bengal tea belt. Only permanent The money mostly came from Yojana -- which are meant for manage it among the upcoming couldn’t walk back home and other under which Motisar functions, accidents in the village, besides workers are entitled to them; their individual Provident Fund economically weaker sections -- – generations.” villagers had to help him.. said that since its population was providing light he says.

PaSrAcYANhI DeAS d throats in Siliguri Wedding bells get louder in Punjab RIMJHIM SINGH afloat.” customise gift boxes and sweet are around 400 decoration SILIGURI: Women streamed A decoration contractor, Manit boxes for weddings and other companies in the city. But due to down the narrow path, with CHANDIGARH: The big, fat Bishnoi (47), who has been in the events. Although the demand has the farmers’ protest, many aluminium vessels balanced on Punjabi wedding culture took a hit business for 15 years, says, “This decreased, we are hopeful of company owners have gone back to their heads or buckets hanging on in 2020 due to the pandemic. The has been the worst time in the earning well as people now prefer their villages because their fathers their two sides. A few carried otherwise grand and extravagant business. I have 23 small larger and more expensive gift are in Delhi. This has increased the children in a sling over their ceremonies were reduced to small companies under me and all of boxes as they cannot spend much demand for the few of us here and shoulders. Others scolded the gatherings. The wedding industry them ran out of business. We used on other things.” we are earning more than ever. In children who were running went into recession. to make a lot of money during the Endorsing him, Sunil Chauhan, the past four weeks, we have alongside. “Stop running. If water The Fine Dine Caterers, wedding season, which helped us a customer, says, “I plan to buy earned enough to compensate for spills, you won’t have a drop until Chandigarh, is trying hard to survive throughout the year.” huge boxes of sweets for my our losses incurred during the tomorrow.” recover from the losses. Shivam Customising gift boxes daughter’s wedding. Since the pandemic.” Tea gardens in the Terai and Sahini (26), an employee, says: But all is not lost. The city is gathering will be small, I plan to Surinder (44), chief of the All Dooars tea belt of North Bengal “Before the pandemic, a wedding now slowly returning to the grand spend more on gifts for my Rise DJ Company, is another happy face acute scarcity of drinking would have 600-700 guests but the wedding culture as the number of relatives and guests.” man “The farmers are protesting water, so much so that villagers no number came down to 50-100 post- guests allowed has increased. The lockdown and the ongoing for the right cause and the protest more wish to comment on it. lockdown. Our sales dipped. We “Since 200 guests can now attend a farmers’ protest have, ironically, has benefited us. The decrease in While the tea estates of north started catering for small wedding, our earnings have helped some businesses. Ashutosh the number of companies in the city Bengal house five to ten villages gatherings such as birthday parties improved”, says Hemant Yadav, Malik (51), who owns a tent has earned us more contracts,” he each, most fail to provide adequate and wedding anniversaries to stay owner of a sweet shop. “We company, has seen profits. “There says. drinking water to their residents. So, at dawn, the workers, who are A broken pipeline, and hence disruption in water in their hundreds in each village, supply in the Terai and Dooars tea belt. file in near the few municipal taps Photo: Sayani Das to fetch the day’s water share for Exploitation adds to slum plight their families. became the responsibility of the the Matigara garden, said many No end to sufferings in jhuggies in unauthorized colony owned by 3 private players Ramesh Orao, 50, a plantation Public Health Engineering (PHE) workers spent their savings to worker at the Matigara Tea Estate Department. After 2014, most of repair or sink tubewells in their NITIKA GANDHI there is no space for people to wash Central and Delhi governments is freebies, free water supply, here, said in a complacent tone, these installations became relics. villages. All of them had to themselves or their clothes. Getting hardly enough for them, she negligible electricity bill, and “The problem has always been According to Sudip Dutta, mortgage an asset. NEW DELHI; “I was brought out of your house without stepping complained. admission of children to private there. What use talking about it?” assistant secretary of the Centre of “With an income of Rs 176 per here in the 1990s, just after my on a filthy drain is a challenge. Moreover, youngsters, mostly schools via the EWS (economically He doesn’t hope for a solution any Indian Trade Unions (CITU), day, how else can we spend Rs marriage and since then I along About 40% of the population in illiterate, in the slum are addicted weaker sections) route.. These more, either from the management Darjeeling district committee, “By 10,000 to 15,000 on water?” he with my three kids and four adult jhuggis shares two mobile to drugs. Bandana Kumari, MLA people occupy about 80% of the or the government. law [Plantations Labour Act, asked. members have been living in this toilets, 300 metres away, one each (Aam Aadmi Party), told this total area, extract money from the Under the West Bengal 1951], even today, drinking water Tiwari said, “We could manage 3*2.5-metre room house; we don’t for men and women. The facility is student-reporter that 30 per cent of poor households and would not Plantations Labour Rules, 1956, facility should be provided by the for ourselves, but what about our have much space to stretch our legs cleaned every second day but, due them, in the age group 12-16, had think of moving out of the slums. owners of tea gardens are employer.” wives and children?” and sleep but we somehow lack of proper water supply, the taken to marijuana, hash, etc. Raja Ram (42), from Hapur, responsible for supplying drinking An email sent to the Water scarcity has eased little in managed to build a kitchen to keep toilets are left unflushed. In fact, But not everyone in the slum is Uttar Pradesh,who works for about water to permanent workers. management in this regard did not these gardens over a decade of utensils,” said Sarita Devi(42). people have to carry buckets of destined to suffer in this slum, 16 hours a day as labourer, is the However, most of the gardens later receive a reply. elections. This the plight of about 15% of water. which doesn’t come under any sole breadwinner of a family of shed this responsibility on the Dutta said that most of the Sajal Orao said, “During the the 15.000 population in the “Starvation, exploitation and municipal corporation. It is in a eight. On the one hand, he is unable State’s 2010 project, Sajal Dhara Dhara installations suffered for panchayat election, we said that we unauthorized deep slum, stretching deaths have become common in posh area and is owned by three to feed his family with two meals, Prakalpa, which was launched to lack of maintenance and repairs. urgently needed two wells. They for about 500 metres, at our lives; governments came and private players, said Radhe Kumar and, on the other, he is burdened meet the crisis. He said, “In most cases if the motor [people’s representatives] joined Pithampura in the national capital. went but there is hardly any relief (38), president of the Slum with a monthly rent of Rs 3500 by Under the scheme, the State stopped working, the PHE hands and took the votes. Who According to the Municipal for us, and the pandemic has Residents Welfare Association and a powerful man, says Raja Ram, would undertake a one-time department and the panchayats remembered us after they won the Corporation of Delhi, the slum has worsened the situation. Earlier,we BJP leader. The huts of the 1980s adding that even during the instalment of water pumps, would be at loggerheads to decide elections?” about 2000 houses. There are 7-8 had at least two proper meals but have now transformed into lockdown, no lenience was shown. purification and storage facilities in who should finance the repair.” Tiwari added, “If the members living in one jhuggi. now having food every day is a big permanent houses, and people have The MLA said the government the tea gardens to provide potable This ‘confusion’ rarely got government does not pay heed, Sarita, who hails from ask,”says Sarita. got their ration cards was planning to rehabilitate the water to the rural community. resolved. what use complaining about the Chitrakoot in Madhya Pradesh, is Amidst the stringent lockdown, About 55% of the total slum poor population in a better place Later, maintenance of the projects Uday Tiwari, a field worker in company?” in a cluster of the JP Block, where the supply of free dry rations by the population is there, attracted by by 2023.

ABHIJEET KAUMA R taarny gnotice on tan aofternofon in elovss duie tco the tdemioolition,n our tostal leiastn 25,00 0. tThehir priemary mecans aregaprding ithetir caaste. Iln Staotes likfe the nation February. We asked them to give us loss during that time was easily of livelihood is manufacturing and Rajasthan, they are more visible NEW DELHI: Living in at least half an hour to move our around Rs. 80,000.” selling iron tools and utensils The and hence they have been included roadside slums, the Gadia Lohars belongings. But the policemen said The reason for their coming back families of the Mansarovar Park in the Most Backward Classes community has faced repeated that it’s government property and to Mansarovar Park, Sanjay said, settlement use a public toilet, more (MBC). But here there has been no evictions from their settlements by ran a bulldozer over our homes.” was that they had been living there than 100 metres away from their proper delineation in Delhi,” Delhi Municipal Corporation After the eviction, the families for decades, so people knew about shanties. Ayushmaan said. authorities, leaving them deprived moved to Mohan Nagar, 9 km them and they used to get some Aishwarya Ayushmaan, 28, who However, there were evictions as of housing and sanitation. away, for a few months before work at least. “There are many works as a legal researcher at recent as last year of the Gadia According to a Housing and returning to Mansarovar Park. factories and households nearby HLRN, said that the reason for the Lohars in the city, he added. Land Right Survey Network “My 11-year-old son had to drop this area. A lot of our hammers and repeated evictions of the Gadia- According to the HLRN’s report on (HLRN) report, released in out from school for a year because other iron products go to the Lohars in Delhi was they were not forced evictions published in September 2019, a settlement of 62 the month of February-March is the factories, so here we are still able included in the Delhi Urban Slum August this year, 35 houses of the Gadia Lohars families in time of exams and we had moved to get some earning,” he added. Improvement Board surveys. Gadia Lohars were demolished in Mansarovar Park was demolished far from the school,” rued Ravi. The Gadia-Lohars are a former One major issue for the Gadia Gurugram in July, during the peak in 2017 without the inhabitants Sanjay, 24, said Mohan Nagar is nomad community from Rajasthan Lohars is that they have not been of the Covid-19 outbreak. being provided with alternative on a highway. “There was no work who have settled in the Delhi-NCR provided with a caste-certificate accommodation. there. Our debt was rising as we area for more than 50 years. which is needed to get the benefits Doing her work with a smile Ravi, 29, said that they have had to set up a new temporary According to the HLRN report, of caste-specific government even in times of adversity. been living here for over 30 years. house. In two months, we spent Delhi has over 58 Gadia Lohar schemes. Photo: Abhijeet Kumar He said, “The MCD came without almost Rs. 35,000. Add to it the settlements, with a population of at “There’s a lot of confusion JANUARY 15, 2021 NORTH 3 A cycle of water woes Venturing out for Villagers use a two-wheeler, even with a flat tyre, to fetch water in large quantities ESHAN KALYANIKAR is no water at the government Abhijeet Patil, water distribution water per capita per day. toilets either, we carry water there.” supervisor with the gram However, Deputy Sarpanch wages, though risky PATTANKODOLI(Maharashtra Veena’s husband, Anil, walks his panchayat, says the supply from the Krishna Masurkar says this project Livelihood crisis felt acutely by workers who returned home ):Almost every villager of Boudh cycle to the watertank every time tank, with a capacity of 3.15 lakh is a curse for the villagers as roads Nagar here has a cycle, doesn’t the house is short of drinking water. litres, was enough till a few years have been dug frequently to fix GARIMA SADHWANI matter if a tyre has sprung a For several women, it’s a ago but now the village population pipelines. puncture. The residents laugh it off different routine: one pot of water has increased. According to the “The gram panchayat has spent BAKHTIYAR NAGAR (Uttar and say they just walk the cycles to on the head and another in the 2011 census, it was 18,573. Rs 3,25,270 to fix leakages caused Pradesh): Shaqeel Ahmed (27) and bring water in big quantities from hand. Shortage of labour at the by faulty laying of the pipelines by Abdullah (40) walked many miles a nearby well, and from the village Babaso Nalband (33), an watertank facility is also a problem, the sub-contractor. He doesn’t and each paid a truck driver Rs. drinking water tank. employee of the State Bank of says Patil.“The salaries of the even pick up our calls,” says 3,000 to bring them here from People of this village, in India at Sangli, who lives in this existing workforce are pending Masurkar. Warangal in July last year. With no Kolhapur district, complain that area with 13 family members, because of poor revenue collection Denying the charge, the sub- food and water, they kept standing water is supplied to them once in says,“I have to take leave from and the lockdown.” contractor, Tinku Mane, says, “The with 33 acquaintances for two days five days, that too irregular and work frequently, to fill up Construction of another pipelines are fit and the villagers and three nights. delayed frequently. containers with water when it watertank under the National Rural have been getting water through it During the Covid-19-caused Sarita Kamble, 33, for whom her arrives. We need to collect it in Drinking Water Programme for the last 4 years. I took care of lockdown, 118 people who had ninth-grade daughter brings a huge quantities before the water (NRDWP) has been pending for maintenance for distribution of been working outside returned to cycleload from the well, says,“The tanker goes.” about six years. It is only after a water for about three years.The this village in Lucknow district. water cannot be used for drinking. The wealthier villagers have sustained protest earlier this month gram panchayat might have paid More than 100 of them have We use it for other household borewater supply in their homes. that the district administration for maintenance after that.” He already ventured out again. Shaqeel work.” Most villagers get gram assured the villagers that the adds, “The work will be completed and Abdullah, who are zardozi The family is compelled to go panchayat supply, for which they project would be completed by in the next two months.” artists, are planning to go back to for packaged drinking water. pay Rs 1,200 a year, with great March 2021.The project aims to Both Patil and Masurkar say the Warangal soon. Veena Kamble (32) says, “There difficulty. provide at least 40 litres of piped water problem will be solved once Shaqeel, who had been working Moving on: For Sudhir Yadav, a battery rickshaw is the the pending work is completed. in Warangal since January 2020, source of employment now. Photo: Garima Sadhwani Husband, not sarpanch, does said, “I earned Rs. 25,000 a month the talking when I worked in Riyadh, Saudia pandemic.” Sanjeet made Rs. 800 a day for There are plans to take the Arabia, for two years. But I lost my Sudhir is planning to return to 12 hours of work in Hyderabad, but payment on a monthly basis (at Rs job. In Warangal, I earned Rs. Pune in a month. He is scared, just Rs. 200 in this village for the 100) for water supply, says Arun 12,000 a month. Here, I hardly earn having heard about the ordeals of same duration every day. “I’ll go Jadhav, husband of Sarpanch Rs. 6,000 even if I work overtime.” those who had returned home back once work resumes normally. Vijaya Jadhav. This will ensure Abdullah, who had been in during the lockdown, but he has to There’s no growth here,” he says. contribution by all villagers, he Warangal for the past 12 years, has work. “I earned Rs. 2,000 a month Satish Kumar Nigam, a BA adds. a similar story. “Here, we work in Pune, and here I make nearly Rs. graduate, says, “I drive a battery- Arun Jadhav, who is candid that more but we earn less. I made Rs. 300 a day. But what I get in Pune is run rickshaw here, because I can’t he is the decision maker in matters 12,000 a month, but ever since I guaranteed income. There’s no afford to go to Lucknow every day of the village and answers came back, I’ve received orders for surety of that here. Also, since I for a job or move there with my questions on behalf of his only 15-20 days and made Rs. lived in the hotel, I was able to save family. The government should set Sarpanch-wife, says salaries of 2,000.” He believes that zardozi my whole salary.” up some factories here, and many labourers working at the artists earn well only in Chennai, Sanjeet Kumar (27), another prioritize educated unemployed watertank have been pending, Hyderabad, Warangal and zardozi artist, who had been people for recruitment.” because the villagers aren’t paying Mumbai, because their work working in Hyderabad for the last Farid Ahmed (21), who owns a their dues. flourishes there. 11 years, came home just before cybercafe in the village, said, “I Asked about lack of water Sudhir Yadav (20), who drives a lockdown in March 2020. “When have a B.Com degree from supply at government toilets, he battery-run rickshaw, said, “I had work started resuming in June, my Lucknow University. Since the says taps aren’t fit inside the been working as a waiter in Pune boss called me. There were six of lockdown, I hardly earn Rs. 1,000 facility as a way out of “misuse”. for five years. I came home in us who went together. But a friend a month.”He added, “Educated The daily routine: Anil Kamble removing a container of water Some people would drink alcohol February [last], and have been and I came back in August, because villagers like us should be provided which he brought from afar. Photo: Eshan Kalyanikar there and steal the taps, he says. stuck here because of the there was very little to do.” jobs in cities.” Art hangs by a thread Caste counts for fair PDS supply COVID-19 adds to problems of zardozi artists in U.P. village Chamars of Rasulpur village in Bihar complain of malpractices GARIMA SADHWANI ARPIT PARASHAR 3 a kg. But at Rasulpur, people pay, Bihar Government announced on average, Rs. 3 for wheat and Rs. mandatory supply of 5 kg of rice BAKHTIYAR NAGAR (U.P.): SIWAN (Bihar): “We pay more, 3.50 for rice. Despite paying more, and 1 kg of pulses for April to each Sheebu Ansari (35) has sown yet we don’t get our due ration they do not get the foodgrains due of the 1.47 crore ration cardholders. coriander, potato and papaya in a entitlements, and the supply also to them, the villagers complain. But the supply chain was corner of his home in this village in comes late.” This sums up the Gogli Devi (60) said, "Last ineffective, say people. Lucknow district. A zari-zardozi complaints of villagers of Rasulpur month I got weevil-damaged wheat According to Kalanti Devi (61), artist, he cannot afford to buy food, in Bihar’s Siwan district. The and pulse. When I asked my distributor Ramesh Singh said that nor does he have any land to do people are “exploited” because of distributor about it, he said ‘that is the supply chain from the farming, so now he eats what little their caste, alleges Tiljhiri what he is getting from the government's side was slow he is able to grow. Kuanwar (55), a resident. Most of government’." However, she because of the pandemic and (Zardozi is a type of heavy and the cardholders in the village added, people in neighbouring economic pressure, and that’s why elaborate metal embroidery on a belong to the Chamar community, villages were getting fine quality of he was unable to provide free silk, satin, or velvet fabric base. Pinning his hopes on a fallen art: Sheebu Ansari at work. a Scheduled Caste. wheat and pulse. rations to them. Designs are often created using Photo: Garima Sadhwani "According to government Mukhev Ram (61) said, “During Ramesh Singh (42) spoke of a gold and silver threads. With time guidelines, we should get 5 kg of Lalu’s [Lalu Prasad Yadav’s] “common practice in most of the silk and other shining threads are and the whole family’s effort to pieces with ourselves. They’ll pick wheat and rice per head in a family, government we had a red card villages here” of the persons also used) complete one piece, for which they them up whenever they manage to but our distributor at the Public (BPL card), under the Nitish concerned denying people free Sheebu’s mother, Shabnam earn Rs. 300. “Over the years, make the payments.” Distribution Booth (PDB) gives us Kumar government we got rations and illegally selling the Ansari, said 20-25 years ago, many people left zardozi and The farmers’ protest on the only 4 kg per head," says the coupons, and when the Jitanram grains. people would want to get their started driving battery-run Delhi border has also hampered villager. Manjhi government came to power, Gogli Devi (60) showing her Nonchalant, Pradeep Thakur daughters married only to zardozi rickshaws or became daily wage their work because the cloth -- raw Ranglal Manjhi (62), another we got a new ration card.” This is ration card for 2019. (35), leader of the Rasulpur Gram artists, because they were labourers,” Sheebu said. material -- comes from Punjab. resident, complained that the how a Dalit resident sees recent Photo: Arpit Parashar Panchayat, said: “These things are prosperous. Today, no one wants to Waqeel Ahmed (55), who has Waqeel added, “The few shops in distributor, Ramesh Singh (44), on changes in Bihar’s Public common here as we all have to be associated with them. She said, been in the business for more than Malihabad [Bakhtiyar comes under being asked about the short supply, Distribution System (PDS). It just haven’t got it yet," complains survive. This is nothing new. “People who do menial jobs are 30 years, said that while he could this block] that do have the said he kept as his share one kg of conveys the message of rivalry Ramjeevan Ram (32). Before me other council leaders better off than us. earlier earn up to Rs. 9000 a month, material, have increased the the entitlements due to every among political parties, he says. During the initial stage of the were doing it and now I am doing While the condition of these now he struggles to make even Rs. prices.” member of a family. “Every year we have to renew pandemic in March 2020, the because I am a part of the system. artists has been declining for the 2000. He said, “I take orders from Sarpanch Yusuf Khan said the Under the National Food our ration card as it is valid only for Central government issued The circle officer, ward councilor, past 10-15 years, the Covid-19- the shops in Lucknow’s markets. villagers have been given free Security Act, every person in a a year, but we haven’t got the card guidelines on distribution of free dealer and distributor at the Public induced lockdown brought their After the lockdown was lifted, the rations, but not any particular help household should get 5 kg of grain for this year. Our distributor said rations to provide relief to the Distribution Booth all take their trade to a halt. It takes four days shopkeepers told us to keep the to mitigate their professional woes. -- wheat at Rs. 2 a kg and rice at Rs. because of the pandemic we people through the PDS. And the share.”

Now, bHoweavert, wsith bnighet ccurfkewo stinll on ,y toourisum i s innot o uct oif thye w ooodsf lakes BHARAT SHARMA offers camel ride down the road to now, said,“I used to earn upto Rs only five or six rooms have been visitors in November was 54,830, the Karni Mata temple, said his 2,500 daily during the peak season occupied by domestic tourists.” down from 1,57,560 during the UDAIPUR: The tourism sector, monthly income target was Rs of winter holidays but I earn hardly Naman Arora, an MBBS same period in 2019. badly hit by the lockdown since 10,000-15,000. But it is difficult to Rs 250 these days.” student, who came from Haryana What is the government doing to March 2020 in the wake of the meet the target these days because Prithvi Singh (23), who opened with three friends, says Udaipur is boost tourism? Shikha Saxena, pandemic, is now slowly of fewer numbers of tourists.Most a tea stall at Dudh Talai in a beautiful city but they have Deputy Director of the Regional recovering in this city of lakes and of what we earn daily goes to the September last, also says his difficulty in finding cabs and Tourist Office of Udaipur, says historical capital of the kingdom of camel itself -- for food, decoration, business is not doing well, but restaurants after 7 p.m., thanks to online marketing campaigns are Mewar in the former Rajputana clothes, vaccination, etc.” He pays hopes it would pick up in the near the curfew. being done. Agency. the Nagar Nigam here Rs 2,000 future. Damaged roads, a deterrent “We expect this industry to Permission has been given for yearly to get permission for camel Tourists come more at weekends Moreover, “the roads are dug up bounce back as soon as the resuming boat rides, of course with rides. than on weekdays, especially from everywhere due to which it gets pandemic gets over.” COVID-19 precautions, in the Vendors suffer nearby Gujarat and Madhya uncomfortable to travel around the Talking about damage to roads Fateh Sagar (artificial lake) and the Rajesh Kheda, who runs a stall Pradesh to spend time here or places.” during the construction of the Pichola fresh water lake. at the tourist hotspot, Dudh Talai, Mount Abu, which is about 160 km Adding to tourism business Smart City project, which is The Manaspurna Karni Mata said his business was affected due away, says Kheda. woes was the decision of the local affecting tourism here, she says cable car ride, near the Pichola to curfew in force after 7 p.m. Shakti Singh Rathore, whose administration not to conduct the sewage work, for which roads have lake, which attracted around 2,500 “If you [the city administration] father has been running Hotel Dussehra-Deepawali mela, the been dug up, has slowed down due monthly visitors during the winter close the market and all shops in Shanti Palace on City Palace Road Shilpgram (arts and crafts) mela to the pandemic. Low-key resumption: While tourism is yet to return to its vacation previously, recorded a the evening itself, then where will for 30 years, says, “There are 12 and Rawan dahan this year, to curb Pointing out that the issue was heyday in Udaipur, boat rides have just resumed in lakes. drastic fall in ticket sales. But in the tourists go? They will just go rooms in our hotel which used to the spread of the coronavirus. raised at a meeting, in the presence Sunil Agawal, partner at Mewar Boating, operating in the November nearly 800 visitors back to their hotel rooms. And how be full during this season [winter These events normally attracted of the Udaipur Collector, Saxena Fateh Sagar, says his business dropped 80 per cent com - turned up, said a person at the will we earn? holidays]. There are no foreign crowds from all over the country. said, “We suggested that if sewage pared to the arrivals in 2019. Photo: Bharat Sharma ticket counter. Kheda, who has been selling tourists this time. Even after our As per Regional Tourist Office work was done in different phases, Bharav Lal from Mavli, who lemon juice and soda for six years offer of 20-30 percent discount, of Udaipur data, the number of then it would affect [tourism] less.” NORTH 4 JANUARY 15, 2021 Whither home and dream? Battered, after marriage Child marriage impacts literacy, security and health She was 5 when she was promised to a man; he threw her & children into a well ANUSHKA JAIN SANSKRITI FALOR laws continued to make demands. “They started asking for car, NEW DELHI: Nandini Kewat JAIPUR (Rajasthan): The date money, motorcycle and gold, works as a labourer at a public park is etched into her mind: February among other things, saying that if in New Delhi’s Vasant Kunj, but 23, 2015. Sohan (she prefers to go Kamlesh had married another misses her home and parents back by only one name) was three woman, he would’ve gotten these in rural Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh from months pregnant when she went to in dowry, he complained. where she hails. “Getting married the forest to collect wood, Four months after Kamlesh early is a lot of trouble..so long as accompanied by her two children. threw his family into a well, he got you live with your parents you There, her husband, her in-laws, married again. Sohan was never don’t even realise what you have and her brother-in law’s wife were served a divorce notice. and don’t,” she says. waiting for her. They beat her, “He always used to say that he The 18 or 20 year-old (She pulled her by the hair -- so hard that would get married again, but I herself is unsure of her age) is a patch of skin peeled off -- and never thought he could take such a among the 36 million child brides No warmth in her life: Nandini Kewat with her child in threw her children and her into a drastic step and kill his own son for who hail from Uttar Pradesh, front of her jhuggi in New Delhi. Photo: Anushka Jain well. money,” said Sohan. notorious for child marriage. She lost her first child, eight- “They cremated my grandson According to a survey conducted her youngest sister, all of 10 According to the National year-old Rahul, that day. Not only without calling the police or by Centre for Social Research years,continues to study. “She’s a Family Health Survey 2015-16, did the incident take her son’s life, conducting post-mortem. I don’t (CSR), in Uttar Pradesh and quick learner,” says Nandini, who rural Jhansi has a child marriage but it also paralysed her daughter even know if he actually died or Madhya Pradesh in 2015, child asks her for the alphabets in her rate of 32 per cent. and gave Sohan a lifetime of was alive,” adds Radhakrishnan.. marriage severely impacts name everytime they meet in New Raghuraman Singh, district illness. “I still take medicines Down but determined: Sohan with her daughter Sohan is fighting a case against women’s literacy, security, and Delhi to include in her Mehendi. coordinator of the Women’s Safety because there are some wounds her husband, who she says is health. Talking while making rotis in Cell in Jhansi, says child marriage that haven’t healed. I will have to Photo: Sanskriti Falor influential, for the murder of her Belonging to an agricultural front of her 4x6 feet jhuggi, the happens mostly due to mentalities, continue taking these forever,” says son and domestic violence. family, Nandini dropped out of mother of two struggles to keep her and financial constraints. “People Sohan, now 30. place in Rajasthan in 2015-2016, sexual, emotional and mental She claims that her husband’s school after class 5 to help her year-old toddler Suraj away from have a mentality that girls are Sohan, who comes from a small making it the sixth top State with violence. side has threatened or paid off parents by working on their farm the fire of the chulha.As Suraj ultimately someone else’s village, Dabach in this district, was the highest number of child “Young women lose their right witnesses and has control over the with her 3 sisters. She was married stumbles and falls close to the fire, property.As soon as she gets a little five when her father promised her marriages in the country. to see their own dreams.” police. “They have filed a false off to a local a few years later, after Nandini picks him and says, “His mature they think she is ready to to Kamlesh from Thali village in Parents’ perception After her second child’s birth, case against me, claiming that I fell which she moved to South Delhi’s mother neither gets to eat nor get married, without caring if she the State. At 15, she was married “Parents want to marry their Sohan felt that things were getting into the well.” Vasant Vatika, a Delhi sleep,” she says. really is,” he says. and sent to his home, she says. daughters off since women are seen worse. “They hit me and sent me Building life anew Development Authority park. Living in the small jhuggi cluster With a longing look in her eye, Things were fine in the first three as a burden,” says Yogesh back home for 18 months. And Sohan is trying hard to rebuild with 20 other migrants from Jhansi, Nandini says “It’s a lot of trouble years; until she gave birth to Rahul. Vaishnav, a social worker with when I returned to his [Kamlesh’s] her life. She has found work in a Not in our hands she left her older son back in her getting married early. You bear “They then started beating me, and Vikalp Sansthan, formed in 2004 to house, the beating got worse since factory near her village, earning village where he is studying. She children at a very tender age, my husband used to blackmail me fight for children's future by ending I didn’t bring anything. My father around Rs 6000 a month, enough to “Over there, only our parents isn’t alone. Almost every other household responsibilities are saying that if I don’t get money child marriage, is no Ambani, he did all he could, support her and her daughters. decide when we get married,” she woman there has had children at a thrust on you. A young girl from my father, he would get “A patriarchal society thinks of and I couldn’t ask for more,” she She wants them to study and do says. very young age. suddenly has to take up such married to another woman,” says daughters as their honour and they says. something with her lives, she says, After her marriage she Uma (22), who is also from grown-up responsibilities.” Sohan. want to marry them off before they Sohan’s 60-year-old father, adding, “I know my luck is bad, but discovered that no one in her in- Jhansi, has had two children – one Balancing Suraj and the Chulha, According to a UNICEF report, start speaking for themselves,” he Radhakrishan says he did what he I want to live and fight for my laws’ place had ever studied after is a toddler while the other is 4 she tells me, “I won’t get him 15 million child marriages took points out, adding, this leads to could for her wedding, but her in- children.” marriage. Of all her 5 siblings only years old. married, I’ll let him study.” Virus puts the brakes on teasing in buses PALLAVI KESWANI have improved the quality of DTC transport. “Women often face ex-servicemen, the Home Guard passengers wear face masks and commute for women. sexual harassment, and Civil Defence volunteers. All follow the Covid protocol. NEW DELHI: For Amresh, 47, “The buses are emptier, and aggression/violence, teasing and three groups are provided gender Diya, 22, a student of Delhi the 13-km DTC bus commute to everyone has to be seated. So the many other forms of unwelcome sensitisation training by University, stopped taking the DTC her office in Safdarjung Enclave overall atmosphere in the bus has behavior in public transport,” organisations like the Manas bus after her parents learnt of the every day has improved over the improved,” says Amresh. Once the according to a study by the Centre Foundation. many incidents of harassment her past year. A clerk, Amresh has been seats are full, the bus does not stop for Budget and Governance However, on the ground, their friends experienced. She claims taking the DTC bus for 20 years, to pick up passengers. Accountability and Jagori. experiences differ. While someone that an overwhelming male staff on but “only in the past few months Rekha Rai, 33, agrees that Interestingly, the Marshals also like Sunil, who previously worked the buses is a deterrent. “I think the have I felt I don’t need to be on COVID-19 has protected her better. cite the COVID-19 protocol as the at a police station, has the presence of more female staff guard all the time.” “The coronavirus is doing the job reason behind a decrease in the experience to tackle offenders, would make me feel safer.”. Like Amresh, women across the the Marshals are supposed to do,” instances of harassment. “Since the Marshals who are inducted from As of 2018, there was one city have benefited from the many she says, adding “they keep buses are no longer crowded, the among civil defence volunteers female driver working for DTC and improvements made in the 6000+ chatting with the bus driver and incidents have gone down”, says lack the skills. Even for Sharma, 241 female conductors - 20% of the DTC buses plying on the roads of conductor, many a time I don’t Sunil Sharma, who has been handling an intense situation total number of conductors (Centre Delhi. Travel is free for women even realize that a Marshal is working as a Marshal since 2019. becomes difficult. "I can only try to for Budget and Governance and, in October 2019, the AAP present.” But is the presence of Marshals intervene, but if the situation gets Accountability and Jagori). This government deployed 13,000 A study by Jagori, a women’s enough to make women feel safe? out of control, I dial 100." wide gap is also because women do Marshals in buses to enhance documentation, training and Dharmendra Kumar, Manager, Since he joined as a Marshal, not feel safe working in DTC safety. Ironically, however, it was communication centre, and UN Sriniwaspuri Bus Depot, explains Sharma has had to deal with buses. While female conductors are No longer a nightmare: A woman signalling a bus to stop. the COVID-19 protocol, not the women revealed that 51% women that DTC Marshals come from pickpockets and eve-teasers. Now, hired, many shift to administrative presence of Marshals, that seems to in Delhi face harassment in public three backgrounds – from among his duties include ensuring that the work after some time.. Photo: Pallavi Keswani Their cup of woes Braving odds, domestic helps Buried six feet in tea gardens stitch up their lives under patriarchy SAYANI DAS like Biswakarma when she went RAGHAVI GARG RIYA YADAV months pregnant when her drunk out to work these days. husband hit her in the stomach. She SILIGURI (West Bengal): Post-pandemic, the women were GREATER NOIDA: Three DEVARGAON (Maharashtra): and her unborn child died in April Gangamaya Biswakarma, 63, also worried about their older women here have turned around In a family of 15, Jyoti Munde is this year, the ASHA worker says. wrinkled and retired, looks back at children, who were pushed to their fortunes, scripting a story of the only one to go out in search of Aarti Somnath, who works on her life as a tea garden worker and attend online classes when the empowerment, though they never work every day. On the other hand, farms, says she has to wake up at 4 sighs. The woman, who worked in family barely had a Smartphone or received any formal education. her husband sits with other village in the morning, do household the Mohorgon and Gulma Tea good internet connection. The They started off as domestic helps men to play cards, says Dhawlabai chores, cook, and fetch water from Estate since age 12, has witnessed mothers, mostly with primary but found a way to upgrade their Munde, her mother-in-law. a pump located half a kilometre many shades of women workers’ school education, were struggling lives. Jyoti works on farms and as a away. All this before she leaves for struggle here and around. to guide their children. Fathers Neha Kumari (18) and her sister labourer, earning hardly Rs.300 a work at 7:30 a.m. Women constitute 60 to 80 barely looked after the matter.” Rupa Kumari (20) did not go to week. Her burden has only Pregnancy is not an excuse for percent of the workforce on various Then for household chores,they school due to lack of resources. increased after her sister-in-law not working; it just makes it Terai tea estates. According to Tea woke up before sunrise, cooked Through hard work and was recently delivered of a baby harder. Men often don’t take good Statistics Report, 2000-01, the tea meals, fetched water from distant determination, they acquired the and she couldn’t work. There are care of pregnant women. garden population consisted of municipal taps since most gardens skills to break their cycle of four men in the family, but women “Women here have to do some 19,572 women as against 17,099 didn’t provide tankers, looked after poverty. They learnt eyebrow run the house, in the entire village. heavy work like fetching water men. Despite their forming the bulk the children and managed fast- trimming, waxing, hair colouring, Dilip Ambhore, an Arogya from pumps even when they are of the community, their problems dwindling rations. While a few still etc., from their friend, while Kendra worker at Devargaon,says eight-nine months pregnant. We scarcely get resolved. worked with firewood, most working as domestic help.Today, the village's older men don’t work. had a case of a woman who was Biswakarma, squatting in the sun households shifted to LPG. they are employed at a big salon in “Younger men still do, but the delivered of her baby, legs first, beside her oldest son’s wife, who “Firewood is scare, but from where the metro. “As maids, together we Neha Kumari (left) and Renu Baisla (right). older generation will play cards for while she was working on the field. has a baby in her lap, is glad that the do we pay for gas?”Biswakarma earned Rs. 5,000 a month.We saw the entire day while the women She was rushed in immediately,” mother got six months leave on pay asked. Mostly, they paid from that our friend who worked as a Photo: Raghavi Garg work and come back in the evening.” says Gotarne, a nurse, at the during her pregnancy. “But not savings or sold off livestock. beautician earned Rs. 8,000. We However, this doesn’t translate Arogya Kendra at Devergaon. everyone gets it,” she said. The women said they had to go resolved to learn the skills,” says some words and phrases in English “which I never did earlier.” She to their economic independence. Ambhore states women do not Maternity leave is only for to fields to answer nature’s call as Neha. … it makes me feel more confident now communicates with her clients Violence against women continues. even have a year-long gap between permanent workers. Casual and there were no community toilets. “The job of a beautician is more and empowered,” giggles Rupa. and manages all monetary According to The Times of India , babies. Gotarne says, “We had a temporary workers, during Some houses in the villages also dignified,” says Rupa. “Nobody Renu Baisla (35),a former transactions online. the National Crime Records 48-year-old pregnant woman as our pregnancy,have to work to receive lacked toilets. likes washing dishes, mopping and household help, learnt stitching, According to a 2010 National Bureau (NCRB) reported that of patient who was trying for a son. It their day’s meagre pay. Pratap Kujur, health assistant at cleaning toilets.Add to that the knitting and embroidering about Sample Survey Organization the total 4.05 lakh crimes against was a high-risk pregnancy not only Working mothers are now the Matigara TE dispensary and shoddy treatment meted out by seven years ago. When she went to (NSSO), more than two-thirds of women registered in 2019, 1.26 because of her age but also it was struggling to nurse their babies. member of the Centre of Indian employers.” the market to get her clothes domestic workers in India are lakh, were that of domestic her eighth pregnancy. Miscarriages Crèches, where they could leave Trade Unions (CITU) said, “In the The sisters recall their appalling stitched for a marriage one day, employed in urban areas. Between violence. Devargaon is no and abortions are common.” their under-two-year children, have best estates 10 to 20 percent don’t living conditions. “It was difficult Renu was surprised on seeing the 2000 and 2010, women accounted exception to this. The Kendra has made several been closed since March 2020, have a toilet. Under indifferent to manage the expenses in a family bill.She decided to learn the skill. for 75 percent of the increase in the DL Kulkarni, an Accredited attempts to spread awareness of though work resumed in June-July. management teams, the numbers go of eight, including four other “My friend’s sister was a tailor and number of domestic workers. Social Health Activist worker, says pregnancies, contraceptives, and Also, as a safety protocol, women higher.” An email sent to plantation siblings,” says Neha. Today, the I started working under her,” she A National Domestic Workers’ men take control of women’s health.But, “people from the older weren’t allowed to carry their owners received no reply. two earn Rs. 12,000 each and make says. Today, Renu owns three Movement report says a majority income despite all this. “They often generation aren’t educated enough babies to the gardens. However, there is something to sure that their siblings, including a sewing machines, including one of domestic workers in India are spend money on alcohol and to understand the importance of Sharmila Thapa, a field worker cheer about. Unlike the situation six-year-old sister, get proper electric machine. She has hired two illiterate/minimally educated and tobacco. Some get home drunk and following these directions. and mother of a one-year-old, said half a decade ago, women now education. girls to work with her. low-skilled. beat them up,” she adds. Moreover, women follow what the she left her baby with older children receive the same wages as men – Rs What is their best takeaway from After the Covid struck, she They are among the poorest and Shanta Krushna Mahaware, a men demand from them,” says in the neighbourhood or old women 176 per day. the new job? “Getting to learn started ordering supplies online most exploited groups . resident of Devargaon, was seven Kulkarni. . JANUARY 15, 2021 NORTH 5

Selling Yaks is only option Motisar: No toilets at SHERUB WANGMO THIMPHU: People are selling their yaks to the slaughterhouse in Paro, Bhutan. Soe, one of the govt day care shelter remotest villages in Thimphu T Lack of toilets at an Anganwadi forces N district, is a two-day-long walk E M

people to go home every time they need to use the toilet. from Shanna in Paro. Usually, this E G

village’s inhabitants earn their N A

JUHI SEERNANI living through tourism and by R R I A N selling medicinal mushrooms and A L A N

AJMER: Sushila Gawaria, a 45- dairy products. However, this year, I R C E year-old selling bangles because of the pandemic, there E E P S S

door-to-door in Motisar is unable to were no tourists this year and they I Y H concentrate on her job because she could not sell any local produce. B

U J O

: is worried about her 25-year-old Tshering Dorji, the village T T I O D ailing son. spokesperson, said that people had H E P

Shakti suffers from Cerebral R sold close to 20 yaks, more than C

Palsy, an affliction of the nervous O double the number (8) sold last T system that leaves sufferers unable O year. “This is worrying,” he says. H to walk and have involuntary P Yaks are the primary income Class in progress at a state school in Udaipur’s Badgaon motions. And that is the reason source for many families in Bhutan; Gawaria is unable to concentrate. most own at least 50 animals. Yak The Motisar anganwadi, a milk is sold fresh or fermented and government institution where made into cheese. They are also working parents can leave their Sanjeeta Kawal at the decripit anganwadi building in Motisar, Rajasthan. used to carry tourists trekking in the children while they work, does not Shakti is wheeled in his are part of the central government’s houses for using the toilet. mountains. Yak hair is also used to No mid-day meal have toilets. This means, the wheelchair to the Anganwadi by Integrated Child Development “I went to the Sarpanch but she make a variety of handicrafts, children at the Anganwadi have to his mother every morning . But, he Scheme. They provide a package of hardly ever pays attention to the prized by visiting tourists. hurry home if they need to go. has to be wheeled home when he six services including pre-school problem of toilets. They don’t want Palden (name changed) sold Sometimes, the children use the needs to use the toilet because there non-formal education to children. to listen. But they pretend to three yaks last month. “In such a in nine month s fields instead of rushing home and are no toilets in the anganwadi’s According to a parliamentary listen,” she says. situation, we don’t have other Rations last provided in March coming back again. school. standing committee report, there According to government data, options,” he says. BHARAT SHARMA keep changing. Previously we “I manage to earn around 500 in He is one of ten physically were still around 4.5 lakh nearly a fourth of the operational Another highlander Nim Dorji used to provide fruits once in a three days by selling bangles but handicapped children in this anganwadi centres that lacked both AWCs lack drinking water (name changed) agrees that their UDAIPUR: Government week but now we will make the sometimes I can’t go out as no one nondescript village of 1200 people. drinking water and toilet facilities. facilities and 36 per cent do not choices are limited. Except water schools here are still waiting for supply every day if it [the is there to look after my son,” she Most of the people here are farmers The Block President refused to have toilets. and firewood, the community needs the second lot of grain distributed scheme] is announced officially,” says. Gawaria’s older son and wife or pastoralists. The anganwadi respond on the matter. While India celebrates being to purchase almost everything. And to students instead of mid-day said Manju Khamesra, Mid-Day live in Gujarat. Her husband leaves school is just a small room situated Sanjeeta Kawal, a caretaker at open defecation free, the the price of the commodities has meal.Mid-day meal is not served Meals in-charge at the her to look after Shakti and earn the in the center of the Motisar village, the Anganwadi, who takes care of Anganwadis meant for healthcare increased over the years, he says. as students have not been coming Government Girls Higher family’s only stable income as which can accommodate only the children when they arrive and and nutrition of women and Therefore they sell yaks for meat in to school since the start of the Secondary School, Bhopalpura. whatever he earns by selling fruit is twenty children at a time. is responsible for the upkeep of the children continue to suffer without the nearest town. lockdown in March 2020 in the As per school data, out of 71 spent on alcohol, Gawaria says. Anganwadi centres, or AWCs, place has to rush to other people’s a proper system of sanitation. The killing of an animal is wake of corona spread. students in the primary classes, 67 considered a sin in a Buddhist The government found an collected their ration in the first country. The authorities are alternative by which wheat and instance of supply. In Secondary concerned over the killing. rice were distributed and school classes, 92 out of 124 students authorities called each student to received it, Mrs. Khamesra said. Covid: only 20 out of collect the rations. The remaining 32 secondary class Aged woman The plan was to give students students, most of them hostelers, in primary classes (1 to 5) 6.2 kg could not collect the rations as 400 return to school saddled with of wheat and 3.2 kg of rice, and they must have left the town, she T pupils in secondary classes (6 to added. N

E NIHIT SACHDEVA students which makes it easier to disabled children 8) 9.3 kg of wheat and 4.8 kg of Suman Jain, principal of the M

E follow social distancing, I decided SHERUB WANGMO rice once in 94 days. But this State Higher Secondary School, G

N SAHARANPUR: Nikhil still to save the year and send my arrangement came to a grinding Badgaon, which is on the A

R meets some of his former children too.” Kumar, who has a Thimphu: Buku is 63, but she halt in March. outskirts of the city, said except a R A classmates on his way home from private job, has two children still has to look after her two adult Chandrashekhar Joshi , Additional few, all 222 students in class 1 to L A

I school. studying at Nehru Bal Vidyalaya, a children: they are both differently- District Education Officer of 8 collected the rations. C

E a class III student is one nof only son named Dikshit in Class V and a abled. Udaipur, said wheat and rice were Now that the Government has P S

20 kids who are still going to Nehru daughter named Mansi in Class Her 29-year-old son, Karma normally dispatched from the relaxed restrictions on opening of Y B

Bal Vidyalaya at Chak Hareti VII. Gyeltshen, is physically Food Corporation of India, Jaipur. schools, students, mostly from O

T village. Students dropped out during the disadvantaged and who also has But there was delay in secondary classes, come to the O

H Chak Hareti is a small village in lockdown due to the risk posed by speech and communication transportation from the main campus. As many primary students P Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur district. the the Coronavirus, inability to disorder. Also, Yongmin, her 23- godown at Pratapnagar . do not have a mobile phone and A Balaknama reporter talking to street children Nikhil is amongst those few travel and other financial year-old daughter cannot walk but Previously, the Akshay Patra hence are not able to attend classes students who have been coming to constraints, says Anita. drags herself around on her knees. Foundation, a non-proft group, regularly, the teachers are going Nehru Bal Vidyalaya for a month Usha Kumar, 30, says that she The family is living in a make- collected the grain from the door to door to assign and check Nehru Bal Vidyalaya is one of decided to keep her daughter, shift dwelling with no attached godown, prepared the meal and homework, says Mrs Jain. five schools in the village. Sanjana, a Class II student, at home toilet or running water. delivered it to the schools. But Government teachers were “The rest have dropped out,” and drop out from the school as she The daughter moves around the this arrangement was withdrawn. actively working even during the The story of Delhi's says Shashikant Sharma, 54, prioritises her child’s health over house using her knees and does as The rations would be lockdown. Assigned duty in Principal of the school, for classes I education. She says that her much household work as she can. distributed by the school nearby areas , they visited every to VIII, he has been running along husband, Sanjeev, who worked as a The son uses a walking stick to administration by the end of house to collect information. with his wife Anita for the past 25 labourer in a cloth factory, lost his move around. He fetches water winter holidays, Mr. Joshi said. “Sometimes the people think Thec ghrouipld, le dj boy au 1r7-nyeaar-ollids, ttrises to years under the NGO Prayas job during the lockdown making from the tap; he spills half of it on Akshay Patra’s menu for the that we are sent by the Samajik Shaikshanik Vikas Samiti. finances another factor. the way home due to his disability. schools included roti, mixed-dhal, government to note down their voice out its concerns He says that ever since Prime Sharma says that he allows The mother has stayed strong plain rice, sweet daliya, khichadi, concerns. Once a family told me Minister Narendra Modi students to continue for months and hasn’t given up on her children. thepla (flatbread) and fruits. to ‘Ask the government to clean PALLAVI KESWANI he says. In December last year, he announced the first lockdown from even if they are unable to pay the But she wishes she could do more Previously, schools used to the drain’. As we had to collect became the Editor of Balaknama. March 24 to April 15 this year to monthly fee of Rs 200. for them. “I am proud of my supply students milk also in the information from them, we used NEW DELHI: At 17, Kishan For weeks now, Kishan has curb the spread of coronavirus, the A single-storey building and daughter because, despite her morning, after prayer. to say ‘yes, we will convey your faced a unique challenge in been meeting his team everyday school has not officially opened without any signboard, it is almost disabilities, she helps me with all Under the Anna Poorna Doodh concern to higher authorities.’ March last year when the national over conference calls. “I talk to despite certain restrictions being impossible for anyone to tell Nehru the household work,” says Buku. Yoojna, started by the BJP Only then would they give us the lockdown was announced. reporters based in Haryana, Agra, relaxed. Bal Vidyalaya is a school. The Ability Bhutan Society is government in Rajasthan in 2018, required information,” said As editor of Balaknama, a and Lucknow.” However, parents of those 20 Empty desks and benches now collaborating with a milk came from the Saras dairy. Aumudani Mittal, lecturer at the newspaper run by Delhi’s street All reporters are aged between students insisted that they did not stacked on top of each other are the physiotherapist to provide a However, the present Congress Bhopalpura school. children, focussing on their 14 and 18 and source both the want the year to go completely first thing visible in the school. A wheelchair for the daughter. government has stopped the “If we knocked on the door issues, Kishan did not know how news and possible solutions to wasted. small blackboard on one of the However, there are still many scheme, saying it would introduce when they were watching the to contact the children left their problems from the street One of the parents, Sonu Kumar, walls has various instructions challenges. Their home isn’t a different arrangement where Ramayana serial, they got without any support. children, some younger than 35, who lives nearby, says, “Since written in Hindi.But there are no wheelchair-accessible, and there is fruits and sweets would be served. annoyed and asked why we came “My team tracked some of them. there are very less number of students. barely any place to move around. “All these government schemes at that time,” said Mrs. Khamesra. them down through mobile “We don’t decide what to cover phones. before leaving for reporting. We However, since many did not go to the field, gather the children have access to a phone, we tried and note down their problems”, to find out their last known says Kishan. This style of location”, says Kishan. reporting has ensured that the Gitillor: lack of phones, internet mars education Once his team established problems are addressed AMRIN NAAZ According to a national survey, A parent, Sukhram Hembram contact, it was quick to make note immediately. Jharkhand state had the fewest (47) said, “Our children are being Z of the street children’s problems. “As soon as the lockdown was GITILLOR, WEST rural households with computer A spoilt because there’s no school. A N But the new normal meant they lifted, we reported on the lack of SINGHBHUM: devices, including smartphones They do not have any routine N I

were dealing with situations sanitisers, masks, and sanitary School has been out for students with only 1.3 per cent households R anymore so they loiter all day. previously unheard of. napkins. People who read our of Gitillor village here because owning them. Also, only 11.9 per M Sometimes they run far away. A

: T

“When we first talked to them newspaper started donating,” the primary school here have had cent households of rural I Then we go looking for them. D

over phone, the children mostly Kishan also ensured that his no access to education for the past Jharkhand had internet . E It has disrupted their growth R

complained about lack of food. team adapted to the digital nine months as their households Urnu Hembram, father of a C and our lives.”He said the

O

But when we started visiting platform. have no smartphones or internet student, said, “My child takes T education they received was of O

them, we realised that they were Since the newspaper could not connections. interest in studies but I hardly earn H decent quality. also facing issues of sanitation, be printed after the COVID Run by two teachers, Mangal enough from farming to sustain P “For us, something is better forced labour and lack of access breakout, news is now available Singh Hembram and Phoolmati ourselves. than nothing. Now they have torn to face masks and sanitisers”, on the Balaknama Facebook Pingua, the government primary How will we buy smartphones the pages of the books that were recalls Kishan. page.Kishan does not work full school was attended by 52 and recharge them?” given to them and used them for Kishan learnt of Balaknama time. As per the NGO’s policy, students from three villages. In many households, students eating fried food,” he added. through CHETNA (Childhood every child is required to When the lockdown started, help their families by working to Another parent, Minjar (37), Enhancement Through Training continue his/her education. teachers were asked by the make money Children of Gitillor working with their family said tuition classes stopping and Action), a Delhi-based NGO. A student of Class 10, Kishan Jharkhand government to shift to Dhukni, nine, did not want to because of the pandemic put them He was a street child and gives four hours of his day to e-learning methods. work in the fields, but she did not old clothes. does not want to either study or -- at a loss.“I am an illiterate person; CHETNA encouraged him to reporting and spends the rest of They were supposed to send want to sit at home either. “I want Rahbari (10), a student, was me.” how will I guide my children. resume his education. In 2018, the day studying. “I want to study material over WhatsApp. school to open soon so I have helping her mother Junga (35) in The village is surrounded by a Now there is no way they could when he expressed an interest to become a dancer”, he says. Hembram said, “After we tried something to do,” she said while sorting wheat crop in front of their dense forest with a short passage study,” she said. join the newspaper, he was Sanno Khan, who mentors the contacting the parents and doing a taking a bucket of water to the home. connecting it to the Kolebira- Venkat Ramana, Block brought in as a reporter. team at Balaknama, has plans . survey, we found that only 3 field where her family cultivated Junga said, “I don’t want her to Hatgamharia Main Road. Coordinator of ASPIRE, an “This newspaper is an outlet “We hope to become as big as any households had smartphones.” vegetables. keep playing all day so I ask her to As the children do not have to education not-for-profit said his for all problems that we face. The mainstream newspaper. I hope The students were completely out Earlier, Dhukni’s school gave help me. Rahbari would go to go to school, they roam around organisation would be teaching mainstream media, unfortunately, children become aware of their of touch with their studies for nine them a football to play with. Now school even when she felt sick, these areas. This has been a children of Gitillor from classes does not highlight them clearly”, rights,” says Khan. months now, he added. they have a makeshift ball made of such was her dedication. Now she constant worry for their families. three to eight for 100 days. 6 NORTH JANUARY 15, 2021

No sanitary Govt hospitals the only ‘ray of hope’ napkins in Residents of Bihar look up to them as private hospitals turn Covid patients away tribal village MAYANK KUMAR wants to utilize the government unfilled in the district’s 19 PHCs AMRIN NAAZ health infrastructure as they believe and other medical facilities,” said SITAMARHI: When 46-year- it is not worth visiting,” said a Mahaveer Thakur, a noted local GUNDIJORA : Bonmasi Mai, old Rakesh Kumar Suman was senior district health official on the physician. 54, uses one cloth for an entire year diagnosed with Covid in August, he condition of anonymity. “What is achieved during the during her menstruation. She went to a nursing home in his “The district hospital was used crisis is not because of government makes a makeshift undergarment hometown Sitamarhi. to its full potential in many decades health infrastructure but due to the with a drawstring and a cloth. She At the nursing home in amid the Covid pandemic. I have hand of God,” he added is told pants are a man’s garment. Sitamarhi, a border district in the been working in the hospital since sarcastically. Women of Gundijora use old eastern Indian state of Bihar, last 28 years but for the first time, I “In the state, where none of the rags during menstruation. They Suman was told that it was not am seeing people trusting our director level positions is occupied have no access to sanitary admitting Covid infected patients. facility, not because it has by public health experts, how can napkins. So he went to another. improved but as they have no other we expect improvement in the Ruibaari Kui, 30, an Accredited When he was turned out of there, option,” added the official. public health system,” said Rajesh Social Health Activist (ASHA) R he went to another. And another till A Public health experts blame the Kumar Singh, another local worker from Gundijora, said, in all M

he realised that he may have to go U centralized bureaucracy and surgeon who runs a nursing home. these years sanitary napkins have K to the government Covid care political class for limiting the Arun Prasad, 51, another Covid been provided just once. “How will K center. N public health system’s size and patient, was admitted at the I get them for others when I myself A Y

“All the private nursing homes A organization. Sitamarhi District Government use a cotton cloth?” she said. M

refused my admission, saying The situation of Primary Hospital on September 18. In the National Health Family : T Covid patients are strictly not I Healthcare Centres(PHCs), Sub- He survived after fighting with Survey 2015-2016, it was found D allowed. I had to move from one E divisional Healthcare Centres the disease for 23 days. that in rural India, 71.4 per cent of R C private health facility to another in (SHCs) are worse as it lacks “No doctor attended to my the women used a cloth, which O a private ambulance, with oxygen T qualified doctors. father. The hospital paramedic staff does not fall under the hygienic O support, for two hours before my H Even in the district hospital of came and asked me to learn how to methods of protection. P wife said let’s go to the government 120 beds, only 18 doctors are administer the drip, saying she Most women in Gundijora used facility, by the time I reached the COVID-19 centre in Sitamarhi District Hospital present while the sanctioned would not come again, as she a cloth. They wash and reuse it. Covid dedicated government strengthen is 32. But things could feared contracting the virus,” said Due to the taboo associated with facility, my condition had As per the National Institute of ranked 25 out of 28 states in health. the primary problem is of be better. Sumit, 19, Arun’s son. menstruation, they have to dry the deteriorated and needed ventilator Transforming India (NITI) Aayog’s The problem is not only of governance and trust. “More than 55 per cent “My father survived due to the cloth in hidden places. support, but I survived,” he added. estimates in 2019-20, Bihar was infrastructure or human resource, “Any middle-class family never sanctioned posts of doctors are grace of God,” he added. In a report by Wateraid, an NGO operating around water, sanitation and hygiene, it was stated if old clothes are not cleaned well, they can become unhygienic. If not Waterlogged roads Miscarriage on the rise in C’garh slum washed or dried properly, they can lead to infections. Some people use sanitary pads Sector 25 women suffer due to construction work, alcoholism and then go back to using cotton make life difficult rags because they can’t afford NIHIT SACHDEVA which locals said was named after RIMJHIM SINGH menstrual hygiene products. a local philanthropist, it was easy Basanti Hembram, 21, a SAHARANPUR: It wasn’t until to see what the villagers meant. CHANDIGARH: At least one resident, said, “I began using the villagers started dying of Pools of rainwater on the village out of three women in the slum area sanitary pads after I started dengue that the officials started to roads were potential breeding of Sector 25 suffers miscarriage, attending school. When I have pay some attention. grounds for mosquitoes. Heaps of according to Asha Kiran, a non- extra pocket money left, I buy it. Lack of proper cleanliness and garbage on the roadsides just made governmental organisation. The They are better and comfortable.” sanitation is still a major cause of it worse. Ram Kishor, 60, a women are forced to work during Nandi Hembram, 22, said she concern throughout the year, said villager, said that despite the appeal pregnancy as their menfolk are was not able to spend money on the villagers at Behada Sandal in July from Ravi Prakash Singh, alcoholics and do not work. Most sanitary pads. She said, “Spending Singh. the Block Development Officer, of the women work at construction even Rs. 30 on them seems like an Behada Sandal Singh is the various households in the village sites throughout the nine months of extra expenditure when I see I have combined name for two villages, were guilty of water wastage. their pregnancy and often end up to do it every month.” Behada Khurd and Behada Kalan, Alok Kumar, 32, another miscarrying. A report under UNICEF showed with a total population of 5,887 resident, said that every monsoon, Sheetal Kumari, 37, a resident, is women who used reusable pads people in the Muzaffarabad Block shoddy roads and improper six months pregnant with her fourth were more than one and a half of the Saharanpur district, 717 km drainage system result in rainwater child and has miscarried twice times more likely to experience away from Uttar Pradesh’s capital filling the village alleys upto knee earlier. “My husband used to work vaginosis and twice more likely to city of Lucknow. level. as a labourer at construction sites experience urinary tract infection, According to information till 2016. While working, he got as compared to those using available on rd.up.nic.in, the addicted to alcohol and has never disposable pads. website of the Government of Uttar stopped drinking. He left work and The Indian Express cites yeast Pradesh’s Department of Rural I am now forced to earn for my infection, fungal infection and Development, Rs. 6,80,815 was family of five.” cervical cancer as potential health H A allocated in September for Sheetal, who earlier used to hazards related to poor menstrual G V E N

maintenance of various blocks in work as a domestic help, joined as I hygiene. There is a lack of D S

H the city. Kumar said that there were a contract labourer. “I have to lift awareness about the consequences. C M I A H

S only three sanitary workers for an heavy objects like boulders, iron Belmati Hembram, 33, said she

J T I area spread over five kilometers. pillars, metallic rods, wooden M has suffered from some irritation I H I R

N One of those three workers, on doors, cement-mixers, sacks full of and symptoms of infection around :

T : I

T the condition of anonymity, said sand and, sometimes, heavy the time of her periods. “I’ve never I D E D that he visits every area in the machinery. I have slipped thrice at received any help for the same. I E R R C village every eighth day and my work site. This resulted in a thought this was natural,” she said. C

O T O collects the garbage. Subodh miscarriage.” She adds that in She explained taking medication T O O Kumar Sharma, 50, who runs a 2019, when she was three months H for menstrual cramps was also H P P small tent house and a store of pregnant, she slipped on a wet floor uncommon there. The women are essential food items, said that in with a heavy sack on her head. Women in a discussion about their problems supposed to endure the pain and A road in Muzaffarabad earlier times, the villagers She hit her head on a wooden continue doing the chores. “Who themselves made sure that the area plank and fell on her stomach. “The was carrying heavy iron slabs. The run de-addiction programmes and says: “Most of the women who else will work if we don’t,” she Last year, in October and in front of their houses was clean. excessive bleeding led to bleeding did not stop for a few rehabilitation therapies. But suffer a miscarriage in this slum added. Anjana Devi, 43, a social November, the village was severely But after the Covid-19 pandemic, miscarriage.” hours and I lost my child.” nothing has materialised so far. come here for treatment. They worker who works for women and affected by dengue, said Dr Kushal they got scared and became totally Another resident, Komal, 31, After just 12 With a come with heavy bleeding, caused children of villages around the Pal, 74, a physician who works at dependent on the sanitary workers. mother of three, suffered a days of the population of by falls while lifting heavy Noamundi block, said there was no Kamala Hospital, a local nursing Suman and Nathiram, the miscarriage last month. accident, Komal “I have to lift heavy nearly 1,100 objects.” primary clinic nearby. Everyone home. Dr Pal said that the epidemic Panchayat Presidents of Behada Her husband, Ramesh Kumar, returned to her objects like boulders... people, this Dr. Saraswat says the women, had to travel around 7 kms to the took at least 65 lives. Khurd and Behada Kalan has been bedridden since 2018. A work site. “I have slum records mostly married at a young age, are TATA Steel Noamundi Hospital. The health department only respectively, could not be reached speeding car hit him when he was three children, aged and heavy machinery. one of the malnourished. They give birth to She added that a lot of women do started setting up relief camps after out for a comment. walking home drunk one night. five, seven and 10. I have slipped thrice highest number four or five children on average and not eat nonvegetarian food when the situation started to get out of Rajnish Kumar, Gram Panchayat He was paralysed and, with time, For the 12 days that at my work site. of miscarriages are anaemic. they’re menstruating. “Some are control. After that, multiple Development officer for the got addicted to alcohol. “I used to I did not go to among the “These women have acute iron not allowed to enter the kitchen, medical teams visited the village villages, said he has not received work as a garbage cleaner but after work, it was This resulted in a other slums in deficiency, which often leads to enter crop fields and plant trees,” for a week and sprayed any official complaints recently my husband’s accident, I started difficult to get food miscarriage.” the city. multiple deformities in the unborn she added. Jayanti Barjo, 35, an disinfectants. regarding the issue of sanitation working at a construction site as a even twice a day.” Dr. Vatsal child. We give free medicines to anganwadi worker, said they had The nearest community health from either of the two. He also said daily wager as it fetches more Alcohol Saraswat, a pregnant women but they do not never been provided with sanitary center for the villagers is 10 km people who died during the dengue money.” addiction in men is a huge issue senior consultant at the complete the course. These napkins. She said, “For 11 to 19- away in the main Muzaffarabad epidemic last year were mostly Recalling her on-site accident here. Many organisations have Government Dispensary and conditions, with their strenuous year-old girls, we only get iron area. Going through the village, those with comorbidities. last month, she says: “I slipped as I visited the slum with a promise to Community Centre, Sector 25, work load, lead to miscarriages.” tablets and a fixed amount of rice.”

Cost of occupational hazards in Noida marble unit RAGHAVI GARG washroom is full of dust. There are layers of lung transplant. insurance for workers? dust on the tables on which we eat. Our nose, On why they do not use face masks, “No, the company has taken nothing of GREATER NOIDA(U.P) : Workers at a ears, hair, entire body and clothes are full of gloves and helmets, Ram Manohar, a that sort,” says Maheshwari. “But it marble processing factory here continue to the white dust that flies when we work.” worker, says: “It is uncomfortable to work disburses money if the workers injure fall victim to health hazards due to lack of He and his friends have chest pain almost in the apparatus they provide us. Most of it themselves while working.” awareness and poor safety kits. all day, he claims. is loose and damaged.” Many workers know at least two persons G

R According to the Factories Act 1948, a “A friend, just 20, collapsed at work after They work faster without the “shabby who died young of silicosis that they A G

I factory that manufactures products which a very bad chest pain. He quit the job,” adds safety gear.” developed while working in marble V

A cause dust and fumes must have exhaust Yadav. Supervisor Maheshwari has a different processing factories. H

G appliances installed. The workers cut, grind and polish marble story to tell though. Bacchan Prasad, 52, who has worked in A R

No such appliance has been installed in at the factory for use in kitchens, dining “When the workers are being supervised, many factories including packet printing

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I the factory, which shall remain unnamed in rooms and bathrooms. Respiratory problems they keep their face shields on but as soon factory and marble-cutting factory, says the D

E deference to the request of workers. and lung issues are common. as we move away, they take the shields off. fumes often make workers giddy. R C

Rahul Maheshwari, 33, a supervisor, says Explains Dr. Puneet Chaudhary, a The lack of awareness on health hazards “Many workers turn to drugs to resist the O

T there is no proper dust extraction system in pulmonologist: “Silica dust is emitted when makes them a victim of respiratory diseases effect of the fumes,” he says. O

H the factory and most of the work is done marble is cut. This leads to silicosis.” like asthma and even lung cancer,” he says. However, Bacchan, who goes by his first P under open shelters that have no vents. Silicosis is a lung disease that can be “They get cuts, bruises and eye injuries.” name, is quick to add that he did not take Workers processing marble without any safety gear Says Govind Yadav, 28, a worker: “The progressive and has no treatment except a Does the management provide health drugs but quit the job. JANUARY 15, 2021 NORTH 7

Slum dwellers told to leave Textile hub effluents The Chandigarh administration promised them they could stay but land owner is forcing the people of Rajiv Colony to leave

RIMJHIM SINGH completed at the start of this year vacated. We informed the affecting crops, people but without the STP, we could not administration about the delay from CHANDIGARH: About 250 move the residents to the new our side well in advance and No waste-water treatment plant and negligence of farmers people of Rajiv Colony, a slum in location.” The official says the submitted even our work plan in Sector 49, are struggling to keep a work got delayed due to the August 2020. The officials said putting human lives at risk roof over their heads as they have lockdown. “The administration they would continue to pay the rent been asked to vacate the land on SANSKRITI FALOR area, says “The police are strict in which they built their makeshift checking but pumping-in this water homes a year ago. The Chandigarh SANGANER: Irrigation sources is cheaper and keeps our crops administration had allotted them at Sanganer village in Jaipur green. Every farmer here knows the piece of land after the low- district of Rajasthan continue to be our crops are harmful; which is lying areas near river Ghaggar polluted by factory effluents. This why, we don’t consume our own were flooded in July 2019, with has severly affected farming at the yield. We sell it to traders but we the promise of providing the R

village which is also a textile hub. don’t eat these vegetables.” O families proper houses in a year. L A

Arsenic in the water has led to a According to a study by the F Mukhtar Khan, 50, a resident,

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rise in cancer cases in the area. International Journal of Applied I says, “The officials told us that we R

Recently, the village has started to Environmental Sciences, water K would get our new houses by June S

receive drinking water from the scarcity in many parts of India has N or July, 2020. A

nearby Bisalpur village. However, compelled farmers to use S The Chandigarh administration,

: T this has not stopped farmers from wastewater generated from I they assured us, would pay a rent D

using the same water for their industries for irrigating agricultural E to the Neev Builders and R C

crops. fields.This, in turn, makes farming Construction Company, which

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G “We have been using this water an unsustainable way of life. T owns this land.”

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I H since I started farming,” says Dataram (38) has seen his However, in the last week of S

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Sandeep Yadav, a 27-year-old forefathers engaged in agriculture. November this year, the Neev I

H farmer in the area, who doesn’t But he chose not to follow their Builders gave the residents 25 J

M believe this is a harmful practice. footsteps. “I quit farming because days to vacate the land. “We were I R

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Although the Rajasthan High Court the water has made our land barren asked to make our own I

One of the several polluted water bodies in Sanganer. D has banned installing pumps to and it would take a huge arrangements for E

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draw water, many farmers continue investment for me to cultivate these plants because the expense of government has promised to set up accommodation,” says Bhaskar C

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to do so without realising the again,” he says. His nephew was building them is just as much as plants to prevent water pollution, Kumar, 33, another resident. T

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effects the crop has on consumers. born with a chronic skin condition, setting up the factory, so they bribe nothing has been done. All the A senior official of the H “The police have come to take the he says. “It can never heal. That is the police, and keep functioning,” industries, till date, continue to Chandigarh Housing Board P water pumps a few times, but that when I decided to become a driver points out Ashok Koolwal, who dump their waste in water and (CHB), on the condition of can be settled,” continues Yadav. instead of a farmer.” owns a factory here. The farmers use it,” says Rajendra anonymity, explains the situation. A makeshift house of the Rajiv Colony slum in Chandigarh. “This is a cheaper way, and the Darvyavati river, now known as Kumbhaj, an environmentalist “We had made arrangements to yield is good too. It also helps in The other side of the story Amanishah Nullah, suffers a great working in the Sanganer area. Not hand over the houses to the Rajiv started setting up the STP plant last till we finished our work. They speeding up the growth of our loss due to these industries. Even only do these industries pollute the Colony residents in the Maloya month. It will take another 20 days have suddenly stopped, saying they vegetables,” he says, adding that he Factories in the area were though the Rajasthan Government water in the area but they also district under the Slum and to finish the work.” are facing a severe fund crunch.” sells his produce all around Jaipur. ordered to have a filtration plant has laid out many plans to increase the levels of air pollution, Displaced Rehabilitation Scheme Prakash Bhatia, a sub-division An official of the UT . and a Common Effluent Treatment rejuvenate the river, the cloth he adds. “These industries are but could not do so because the engineer at the CHB, says: “The Administration, simply says that Many farmers are aware of the Plant (CETP), according to a 2015 industries around continue to polluting air, water and soil and Sewage Treatment Plant could not administration has stopped paying they are trying to help as much as harmful effects of this water. Gopal judgement of Rajasthan High pollute it without any these are the flaws of our system be installed in time. The the rent to the Neev Company and they can and will soon help the Singh, 51, another farmer in the Court. “Most factories don’t build accountability. “Even though the that we need to fight,” he says. construction of the houses was so the company wants the land residents to relocate. Farmland turns A mountain of health hazards wasteland in Rawta Villagers in Delhi’s Rawta lose livelihood Tallest landfill in Ghazipur Growing pile in Bhalswa to annual floods ABHIJEET KUMAR is extremely saline but her family PALLAVI KESWANI when the landfill catches fire, tank is useless”, she says. Like has to use it for cooking and ANUSHKA JAIN 2000s. As constructions in Gurgaon which happens often. On Devi, Zarine and others spend a NEW DELHI: Poor waste bathing. increased, more sewage was added NEW DELHI: Everyday, November 25, 2020, a fire broke fortune on buying bottles of management of the Bhalswa dairy “The skin has become very itchy NEW DELHI: Hari Bhagwan in the Najafgarh drain and from Zarina,72, sits at her small tea out at the site and was brought water daily. landfill, whose size is increasing in the past few weeks. But there is (44), who has lived his whole life seasonal flooding, almost 150-200 stall with her nose and mouth under control only after 24 hours. “Unless we spend, we cannot day by day, has created a health no other option. We can’t buy in Rawta, one of city’s 112 Lal acres of the place have been covered tightly with her dupatta. “Our whole house was filled with survive here”, says Devi whose crisis for nearby residents. bottled water for our everyday use,” Dora villages, looks across the perennially submerged. The She adopted this practice long smoke that day”, recalls Naazri, son is recovering from typhoid. The 65-metre high Bhalswa, she added. swathes of land and says, “This authorities haven’t worked on their before COVID-19 struck and whose flat is situated in the lane Besides stomach ailments, the situated on northern border, is the Brij Mohan, 43, who works as a land once yielded lakhs, now we demand for a wall required to block people were asked to wear face directly facing the landfill. residents also suffer from skin- city’s second largest dump yard. paramedical staff in the can’t even use it to provide fodder the flood water. masks. Come winter and the “Many politicians have come and related diseases because of the Sunita Gupta, 50, who runs a Government dispensary at Bhalswa for our animals.” But the flooding isn’t the last of residents of Mullah Colony promised that the landfill will be polluted water. small shop nearby, said that when it dairy, said that most of the people In order to control the errant the villagers’ woes; even drinking prepare themselves to brave removed. Even the media has Citing the non-availability of rained, it is impossible to breathe complained of respiratory illness Najafgarh drain, the Delhi water is hard to come by and is India’s tallest landfill in reported the issue many times but an alternative site, the authorities and in the non-monsoon seasons, and skin infections. Government acquired parts of the supplied by tankers every alternate Ghazipur, as the season brings the mountain has only grown continue to dump garbage at the there is always a burning sensation Due to small slum houses and village following the Delhi floods day. According to Hari, this also additions to the host of problems over the years”, she adds. Ghazipur Landfill. in the eyes and lungs. unhygienic practices, people in 1977. This has turned villagers’ gets delayed when water tankers’ that exist throughout the year. Naazri and her parents make a In a meeting of the Delhi The landfill has proven contracted skin infections from 700 acres of farmland into waste operators go on strikes, forcing “My children have fallen sick customary trip to the nearby Lal Assembly’s Environment dangerous for rag-pickers living in each other. land, with the annual floods. them to fetch water from almost every year for the 25 years Bahadur Shastri Hospital every Committee, held in early nearby slums. In August last year, a Living in such cramped up Historically, an agricultural neighbouring villages. In August that I have lived here”, says winter with complaints of cough December, East Delhi MP part of it had collapsed, injuring spaces worsened the situation village, with the 1979 Soil Survey last year, matters went from bad to Zarina. Only two narrow canals and breathing troubles. However, Gautam Gambhir promised that three people. during the COVID-19 pandemic. calling its soil “loamy and rich”, worse with flood water entering the and a road separate Zarina’s tea in 2020, they have had to keep by December 2024, the entire Saiful Mir, 46, said that he came According to a report in The the villagers though, now want the village and even leading to several shop from the Ghazipur landfill. away because of COVID-19. garbage at the site would be to Delhi in 2004 along with his Times of India, in 2018, the Delhi Government to buy their cases of dengue in the midst of the Standing tall at 213 feet, when It is not as if the Mullah processed. But the authorities family and had been working as a standing committee of the North land. pandemic. it was last measured, the landfill Colony residents have no trouble have not made a plan for the rag-picker since then. Even after Delhi Corporation had undertaken “We want them to completely Men in the village are turning occupies 70 acres of land. during the rest of the year. shifting of the landfill. the entire family’s labour, Mir said plans to tackle the gas and leachate buy our lands, but even if they lease away from farming to animal Like Zarina’s children, Leachate from the landfill has Satish Sinha, Associate their daily income was Rs. 200- problems but the authorities have it at (the offered) Rs 77,000 a year, husbandry, manual labour and Chaman Singh,23, a student continuously seeped into the Director of Toxics Link, an 300. been silent on the relocation of the I can move elsewhere, buy land and private sector jobs to fend for pursuing a bachelor’s degree in ground, destroying groundwater. environmental NGO, suggests Sharifa Bibi, 42, Mir’s wife, slums and providing the waste- farm there,” says Rajesh Kumar themselves. science, has to deal with Burfi Devi, 73, for instance, that while processing the waste is said, “There is no water supply in pickers an alternate livelihood. (36) who owns two acres of land. Ravi Phalaswal (32), who works respiratory problems every spends money on packaged water the right thing to do, it cannot, by our area for the past one month. We “The government should do Some villagers have also leased out at the Jhajjar AIIMS says the winter. “It gets difficult for me to every other day due to this. itself, solve the problem. are taking water from our something for their rehabilitation their land to migrating fisherman younger people in the village are breathe due to the stench and “We can’t drink the water; we He argues that the action to neighbour’s hand-pump,” she said. and seriously deal with the waste in from Bihar, while others have sold moving towards services. "There is pollution,” he said. can’t wash vegetables in it or tackle Delhi’s waste issue should Pointing at the water in one of the landfill, but no one ever does them for starting shops. not much earning in agriculture so Breathing becomes difficult cook. The water in our overhead start at a much earlier stage. the bottles, she said that the water anything,” said Mohan. According to the villagers, the I also work alongside to sustain flooding has worsened since the myself,” he says. Toilets constructed but people continue to use fields Open drains and Two years ago, the facility was built under Swachh Bharat Mission but there is still no proper drainage swamp in Motisar JUHI SEERNANI

GARIMA SADHWANI money only for 300 toilets. But after I is no place in my house to construct a N

the process started, we had to seek an A toilet. Who are they to decide? I MOTISAR: The village of Motisar has no proper W

BAKHTIYAR NAGAR additional budget for 65 more toilets.” H could’ve built it on my roof had they drainage system and there are open drains D

(LUCKNOW): Janaki, a blind However, the problems of the A given me the money.” everywhere. Overflowing drains and sewers built S

chikankari artist in this village, villagers did not end with the A Geeta, a chikankari artist and right in front of the houses in the village make the M

struggles to go to the farms to relieve construction. I masseuse, said, “My daughter, stench unbearable and the whole village becomes a R

herself, but she has no choice. The Fahad Khan (17), a school student, A Khushboo, has to use the neighbour’s breeding ground for mosquitoes and other bacteria G

toilet at her home, made under the said, “There are many people who : toilet. My two sons and I still have to and viruses causing multiple diseases.The sewage T I

Swachh Bharat Mission, is broken. She don’t use the toilets. Some have used D use the fields.” drains here open up directly into the road which E

doesn’t know whom to ask for help. it to store bhusa (straw).” R Shiv Prasad (42), an NREGA causes the water to pool along the road. C

Under the Swachh Bharat Mission, Sri Ram, a daily-wage labourer in O worker, said, “There were a few “When water overflows, the roads become T

365 people here received Rs. 12,000 his sixties, said, “In my locality O families in every locality that were left muddy.But the government is looking into the H

each to construct toilets in their homes. [Chamar-tula, inhabited largely by P out, because they did not have the matter,” said Gyanchand Das, a member of the Sarpanch Yusuf Khan said, “Instead of lower castes), most people still relieve documents.” Bhagwanpur Panchayat Samiti. While walking hiring a contractor and getting the themselves in the open. It is impossible “We have another problem of no running water in the house,” Yusuf Khan said, “Many problems through the village, it is hard to say where the road toilets made, we thought it would be even to step out of home sometimes, says Geeta, a chikankari artist. arose after the toilets were made. We stops and the roadside begins.It is a popular better to directly transfer the money to because of the smell.” Sri Ram added, are still trying to construct drainage widespread feeling among the villagers that this rift each person’s account. We transferred “Earlier they (the neighbours) would Before the Covid-19 induced But there are some people who have systems for the village. As of now, between the villagers and the Panchayat stems from the money in two instalments- the first say that Thakurs don’t allow them to lockdown in March 2020, supervisors not even received the money to build a only two localities (Arkho-tula and the fact that the Sarpanch, Keli Devi Rawat has half was given in 2018, and the second use water from the handpump in the from the block level would come on toilet, in the first place. Nandini Chamar-tula) have proper drainage abandoned the people of Motisar after elections and half in 2019 after the toilets were locality, but now the Thakurs have no inspection at 4 a.m. every day and Ramkumar, a housewife, said, systems.”. did not make any attempt to visit the village. constructed.” such objection. Yet, people are those found defecating openly had to “Everyone in my locality received the However, no one in the village This issue is an old one and the residents have been He added, “Initially we received habituated to open defecation here.” pay a penalty of Rs. 500. money, except me. I was told that there admitted to defecating openly. battling it for a decade now. Deprivation 2021 Page 8_Layout 1 12-01-2021 10:50 Page 1

8 MISCELLANY JANUARY 15, 2021 Reservoir draws mixed reactions Old fears kill Some farmers welcome Thervoy Kandigai project; others left unhappy MEENATCHI PRABHU (GLV), which is determined based help, the city of Chennai will have new dreams on how much of the surrounding water all-year-round. TIRUVALLUR: J Elumalai land has been sold. According to Padmanabhan, Fearing elopement, parents refers to the gleaming, new However, just a kilometre away, along with the four other reservoirs

reservoir in his town as his village’s U the farmers of Thervoy rejoice at in the city, the Thervoy Kandigai stop girls’ higher education

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B RIA YADAV

Taj Mahal. A the coming of the reservoir. A reservoir should be able to meet There are no buses here, and it can

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“Did you see our town’s Taj P farmer from Thervoy, says that the Chennai’s water needs. The be expensive for us. It can also be

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Mahal?” he asks, gesturing at the H reservoir has ensured water supply reservoir can hold a thousand NASHIK: Savita Ramesh unsafe for our daughters,” Usha

C bright green and white intake T throughout the year. “Now we can million cubic feet (1 cubic foot = Gabale (14), a student studying in continued.

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tower, surrounded by the earthen E have two harvest cycles instead of 28 litres approx.) of water, if filled 9th grade, said she wanted to study Sangeeta Pintu, Usha’s daughter bund and sloping manicured lawns E one,” she says. twice a year. The monsoons will be further but knew her parents would who is now studying in the 6th

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of the reservoir in his village of T “This reservoir is a boon to our able to meet one-fourth the get her married off soon. “I want to grade, said she wanted to become a

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Thervoy Kandigai. E village,” says Thervoy Panchayat reservoir’s capacity and the rest study after my 10th and get a job nurse and help people.

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The comparison to the Taj C Head M Munivel. will be supplied from the Krishna somewhere. I haven’t figured it out Shrikant Zadhavar, a

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Mahal, a building renowned for its T “I have given nearly 4 acres of river through an 8.6 km-long tunnel yet, but I don’t want to get married government school teacher, said

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ethereal beauty seems particularly H land to the government. I’m happy from the Kandaleru Poondi dam. now,” she said. everyone followed the usual path: apt. The mausoleum built by the P that this reservoir is built. Now, our The reservoir can supply up to 60 Parents in Nashik district deny education, career, love and Mughal emperor Shah Jehan for his fields will be drought-free,” says million litres of water every day to young girls higher secondary marriage. “With girls, it becomes a favourite wife was praised for its Elumalai. He is happy that with his Chennai. education due to their fear that the bigger deal because families don’t beauty but it was vilified for The reservoir can supply up to 60 million litres of water girls would get into love affairs. accept such affairs. This is why hastening the demise of the mughal They also worry about the safety of they are often prevented from empire, which did not recover from side were not convinced. The first Kaatan, a farmer from their children. Devargaon and two pursuing high school education the cost of building it. sign of trouble began a year after Kannankottai. INVISIBLE CASUALTY other villages: Shedpada and outside the village and are married Just as the building of the white the proposal was submitted by the The land owners claim that they While the towns of Thervoy and Kannankottai are divided on the Vaishnavwadi have two common off so soon,” he said. marble structure had its pitfalls, the water resource department, when were promised a financial issue of land acquisition and development, the plight of the lan - schools for both primary and Besides this, economic pursuit of solving Chennai’s water the farmers of Kannankottai village compensation of four times the dless labourers went unnoticed. secondary education for children. conditions play a major role in not crisis had its own. The Thervoy refused to part with their land. In land value on the patta (deed), but The Irulas, a predominantly nomadic, tribal community live in se - However, for higher secondary letting girls study further. Kandigai reservoir’s construction March 2014, the farmers staged a they have only received two-and-a- veral areas of the Uthukottai and Gummidipoondi taluks in Tiru - education, the children need to “Most villagers do not know was dogged by farmer protests, road roko. half times the patta value till date. vallur and they form the bulk of the landless labourers. travel to cities. about student loans that the while others are full of praise, After several roadblocks due to “We’re normally never home at As the lands were taken by the government for development pro - The parents do not want to send government provides for poor despite parting with their patta farmer protests and monsoon rains this time. We are out there working jects, in exchange for compensation, the Irulas, who were em - their girls to cities. Usha Pintu, children,” he added. land. obstructing construction, work on our fields. Now, we sit in our ployed as agricultural labourers, had to leave town. Muthu, an who makes fishing nets for a living, According to a UNICEF report, Finally, seven years after it was resumed again in 2018. homes, jobless,” laments agricultural labourer from Kannankottai, is one of the few who said she feared that once her 12- 7 per cent girls under the age of 15 commissioned in 2013 under the Junior Engineer Padmanabhan, Ramamoorthy, another farmer from decided to stay back in the village. “The ironic part was, the go - year-old daughter stepped out of and 27 per cent girls under the age chief ministership of the late J who has been working on the Kannankottai. vernment employed us to survey the land (before taking it over). the village, she might lose focus of 18 were married in India from Jayalalithaa, the reservoir was project since 2013 said that almost Chitra, Deputy Tehsildar for Little did I know it was for this reason,” he says. and run away with someone. “It is 2010 to 2017. Girls in Devargaon inaugurated by Minister of Home 600 of the 800 acres of land Land Acquisitions at Kavaraipettai Before the government acquired the land in 2015, some 300 Irula difficult to get them married if this are married off at 16 or 17 years. Affairs Amit Shah in the last week required for the reservoir belonged says that compensation has been families lived in Kannankottai village and some 50 in the nearby happens. We need to maintain our D L Kulkarni, an ASHA worker, of November. to Kannankottai village. provided to farmers based on the Thervoy village. “They just left one day. We have no idea where image here, only then will someone said the Gram Panchayat had made While the farmers from one “We protested for many years, Land Acquisition Act, 2013. She they went,” says Thilagavathy Mohan, who works as an accoun - accept her.” attempts to spread awareness about village lauded the creation of the but it was all in vain. I had to part says compensation has been given tant at the Thervoy Panchayat office. “Even if we think of sending the law that sets the legal age for new reservoir , those on the other with 3 acres of my land,” says based on the Guideline Value . them off, travelling is not easy. marriage of girls at 18.

Unwanted and bullied at school

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Students of Musahar community face caste violence E

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ARPIT PARASHAR problem with the local MLA, Nand K

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Kishore Yadav, and request him to allot V

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PATNA: It’s yet another tale of one building for a government school near A

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discrimination in this country. Ambedkar Colony. .

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“Our children are thrown out of The government school, where the slum T

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government schools because we are rat- children have been attending classes, is 12 E R

catchers. We are untouchables and many km away. In June 2019, with OXFAM C

upper caste people don’t want us to be support, some families started sending O T

educated. They beat our children at school their children there. But, they said their O H and many upper caste children throw away children were segregated in separate P the books and bags of our children,” says classrooms and the teachers hardly took

Hariya Mehto (53), a resident of R classes for them. A H

Ambedkar Colony here. S Right now, schools are closed due to the

A Living hell: Drainage water, dumped garbage, broken pipes surround Kanagi Nagar slum

Jhunu Ram (15), a resident of the R pandemic. Even otherwise, most of the A P

colony, has dropped out of school and slum children don’t want to go to school. T I

become a rag-picker. P They prefer to work at some place with R

“Once I went to the headmaster of a A their parents or as rag-pickers because their

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high school in Adalatganj, Patna, to tell I parents don’t have any regular job. D

him that my classmates are bullying me E Not welcome in school, these children Slum-dwellers edged out R C

and they are calling me Muss-marwa[rat- are exploited at their work place and they O

killer]. But he slapped me and said, ‘if they T end up smoking and consuming drugs, Decades-old issues persist in Chennai slums O

are saying so, then why are you telling me H says resident Hardev Mehto. R. SAI VENKATESH His wife adds: “When the men were “Some men remain unemployed and all these things; you are a mouse eater and P However, some families, despite away, the women were asked to get into depend on their wives,” he says. they are saying the truth, you should accept financial problems, send their children to CHENNAI: Bulldozed houses, buses by people who claimed to be Hygiene is a huge issue in the resettled it’,” he said. a private school. Papu Manjhi, 40, says he pungent smell from the Cooum and government officials. They locked us up sites. The Perumbakkam resettlement It is alleged that teachers are biased, is sending his two children to the nearest hordes of mosquitoes: amid all this, in a wedding hall for a day, demolished area houses over 17,000 families. The calling children from the Musahar (rat- AVN English School. “We don’t need to residents of the Sathyavani Muthu Nagar our homes and dropped us back.” allotted homes are hardly 400 sq ft in catcher) community dirty. Some upper fear discrimination because teachers in that (SM Nagar) slum have been protesting Many residents protested, moved court size. The pipes in some old blocks have caste families don’t want the Musahar Jhunu Ram (15), with his friend, school are open-minded and they for months, awaiting packed food from and sought political support but weakened over the years, causing the children to attend the same school. playing a game on the mobile understand our situation,” he added. the Corporation and clinging to a few succumbed to pressure in the end. They sewage to stagnate on the roads. When asked about the Jhunu episode, phone he bought after working at There’s still a ray of hope for the slum valuables they saved moments before relocated to Bharathi Nagar, until they Munnusamy (name changed), who the headmaster said “We teachers a restaurant. children. Sailesh Jha (52), a nodal officer their homes turned to debris. were allotted a house in the eight-storey was allotted a 200 sq ft house in Kannagi shouldn’t do such things. I too feel in the Rural Works Department, visits the About 500 houses were razed in the building in Perumbakkam, five years Nagar after the 2004 Tsunami, says the sometimes that I am overreacting.” He said slum after his office work at 5 p.m. and SM Nagar slum over the last month. The later, along with slum dwellers relocated smell from stagnant drainage water on upper caste dominance in this area was a two Dalit Communities in this area [ward teaches them till 9 p.m. plan is to move them to Perumbakkam, pavements is unbearable. big problem, adding that a non- 19]; most of them are rag-pickers and they Asked about his motivation, Mr. Jha about 28 km away, under the Rivers In Mylai Balaji Nagar (MB Nagar) governmental organization, OXFAM, was keep fighting with each other.” said, “One day I came here, with a local Restoration Project of the Chennai Rivers near Pallikaranai, where thousands were trying to build trust between teachers and “Last year [2019], I asked the NGO, to distribute some woolen clothes, Restoration Trust (CRRT) and the Public resettled to build the Mass Rapid Transit children. headmaster not to make any derogatory and saw these kids collecting glass bottles Works Department (PWD). System, there was an influx of slum Asked about discrimination against ST remarks as they all are our children and it’s and playing on a heap of garbage.” Most men in SM Nagar are dwellers between 2000 and 2010. The

children, Arun Kumar Chaudhary (52), our duty to educate them and make them “I spoke to their parents and after construction workers and daily wage area lies opposite to a barren land where

H S

speaking on behalf of his ward councillor- well-behaved.” listening to their problems, I decided to earners. Some of them are porters, E garbage is dumped. Residents are peeved T

wife Shobha Devi (42), said, “There are Chaudhary said he would discuss the take tuition. Most of them now know how employed in the Central Railway Station, A at the poor quality of roads. Pavithra, a K

to write and spell their names.” five minutes distance from the slum. To N corporation worker at MB Nagar, digs

E

V

It is some progress but there is a long make ends meet, the women folk work as I out a piece of the road with her hands and A

way to go, he added. domestic helps. The residents are scared S says furiously: “This is the thickness of

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People of the colony say they are happy of losing their livelihoods. the road. How can heavy vehicles move ?”

: T

with Mr. Jha’s initiative because they don’t “It’s not as if we want to live next to I Poor maintenance is a perennial D

have to pay tuition fees, adding he is a the Cooum. We will move out in hours if E problem. Devakumar, a resident, points

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good man. the government relocates us to a nearby to the dirty waterlogged dump yard. O

According to the State Mahadalit site,” says one of the resident. T “This is supposed to be a playground . O

Commission’s interim report, Bihar has Over the last 20 years, slum dwellers H This has been like this since 2002.” P R

A nearly 22 lakhMusahars and out of them across Chennai have been evicted to Besides hygiene and livelihood, the H

S 96.3 % are landless and 92.5% work as peripheral areas like Perumbakkam, resettlements face problems which are

A A pump for the entire block R farm labourers. Pallikaranai and Thoraipakkam, where decades old. The residents of the two- A at the Kannagi Nagar slum P Upper caste Hindus still consider them they have been given houses ranging storey Tsunami quarters in Kannagi T I

P untouchables and only 9.8% of Musahars from 100-400 square feet in multi-storey from Saidapet, Chintradipet and Nagar have been fetching water from a R A

are literate — the lowest among Dalits in buildings or land to build new homes. Arumbakkam. Even though Annadurai pump since 2005. None of the homes : T I this country. Over 1,000 families from SM Nagar moved to the same area, the has tap water. D E

R Bihar spends about 3.7 percent of the alone have been relocated since 2019. government’s “reckless action and five “Every day, there is a fight at the C GSDP (Gross State Domestic Product) on What is happening to SM Nagar long years” cost many their livelihood. pump,” says Munnusamy. O T elementary education. residents now is what happened to those Venkatesan, who shifted to Kannagi Parthibhan, a Chennai Metrowater O H

P According to a news report, in a who lived in a barren land near Nagar in Okkiyam Thoraipakkam, one of official, however, points out that no performance audit report tabled in Perumbakkam in 2010. Annadurai (name the largest resettlement areas in India, 11 resident has filed a petition for tap Parliament in 2017 by the Comptroller and changed), a member of the Residential years ago, says he spends Rs 100 water. “The scheme under which they Auditor-General (CAG), it was indicated Welfare Association, Perumbakkam, travelling to work daily. “I do not find were given houses provided for only that Bihar had lagged in education for recalls the time he stood on the fallen work every day. Travelling far and pump water.” years and the State Government was not debris of his demolished house begging returning empty-handed is costly.” A CRRT official says: “Government able to utilise over Rs. 26,500 crore from for supportwith hundreds of others. He Venkatesan’s friend, who now works relocation is much better. Livelihood is the Right to Education corpus between claims the then DMK government as a security guard, says many who were not just about working in the area you Children of Ambedkar Colony sit on a heap of garbage 2010-11 and 2015-16. demolished their homes as part of a slum resettled in Kannagi Nagar and Ezhil used to work in. It is also about the clearance project. Nagar have given up their old jobs. quality of life you live” he said. Deprivation 2021 Page 9_Layout 1 12-01-2021 10:52 Page 1

JANUARY 15, 2021 MISCELLANY 9 Dry but still Lake divides poverty, affluence high in Bihar Islanders face the repercussions of development on the other side of the backwaters AISWARYA RAJ & Rajappan (80),the inhabitant of ARPIT PARASHAR resident of the colony, said : “One ADARSH B. PRADEEP the house. packet of alcohol here costs Rs. Across the lake surrounding the PATNA: The Nitish Kumar 25. After the liquor ban in Bihar, KOCHI : Surrounded by water thuruthu (island), is a contrasting Government imposed total many people started visiting my and filth sits a dilapidated moss- sight, where development is apace prohibition on the consumption place because I serve pork, stained house in Thanthonni with the construction of and sale of liquor in Bihar in mutton, chicken and fish with Thuruthu, an island in the humongous apartments by private 2016. alcohol at a reasonable price.” backwaters of Kochi. players, a four-lane road and a But, according to the latest There are several allegations “The flooding has become a leisurely walkway. These have report by the National Family that the police turn a blind eye to routine...I no longer mop up the largely been done on reclaimed Health Survey (NFHS) 2019-20, the sale of liquor in return for house. I will have to do it again lands that displaced a huge

the State consumes more alcohol “monetary compensation.” the very next day,” said Padma volume of water which now J A

than Maharashtra, where dry law There are around 20 dealers in floods the island. R

A

is not in place. the area. The ThanthonniThuruthu Y R

About 15.5 per cent of the “Police constables never ask us (translated as an island with self- A W

male population, aged 15 and to stop selling liquor as they owned boats), is inhabited by 63 S I A

above, drinks alcohol in Bihar, know we are poor people and we families and has no healthcare : O

whose total population, male and don’t have any other way to earn facilities or educational T O

female, is estimated to be about money,” said Jagdish Mehto (42), institutions except for an H 12.4 crore. a school bus driver. Anganwadi that was closed P Thanks to cross-border A constable refused to go on recently citing low turnout of smuggling and other methods record on the money collected children. The thuruthu can only be adopted within the State, liquor from the colony. accessed by vanjis (small boats) sale has defied prohibition. When asked about reports of owned by the islanders or through An area notorious for deaths, a sub-inspector there the sole ferry service operated by bootlegging in the capital city is declined to comment on this the government. Yarpur Colony. Country liquor is issue. For procuring essentials like Padma Rajappan’s home becomes an island within the Thanthonni Thuruthu made by mixing urea powder However, Suresh Sharma (52), free rations and cooking fuel, the with jaggery and water; after that a resident, said, “Many women families have to go to the rickshaw drivers before hand and feasible to build a 372-metre-long private individuals could get CRZ P

the mixture is fermented. In the were protesting and asking for an E mainland in their vanjis or the make sure that they wait for them bridge connecting the 200-metre- and environmental clearance, then E

last three years, many people died investigation in front of the police D government ferry and stock them across the lake. wide island to the mainland and there should be equal chances for A

consuming the liquor. station after a young boy died in R up for a month. “All these hardships can only that many families would be the thuruthu to get a clearance for P

Phulwa Devi (48), whose son December 2019, but they were B During health emergencies like be eliminated by fulfilling our displaced in the process. the bund to prevent the high tide

Nandu Kumar (21) died last year ignored.” H pregnancies, the islanders have to long-standing demands for a Another GIDA official said, “I ingression.” S

after drinking spurious liquor, Asked why they drank and R wade into the water even in the bridge and a bund,” she added. tried explaining to a few dwellers The islands adjacent to the A D

said, “Women of this colony sold liquor unlawfully, Mehto A dead of the night. Thankamma Jinu Varghese, Project Director, the issues of constructing a bridge thuruthu, are well-connected with

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protested outside Jakkanpur said, “Manual scavenging is the O Subramanyan, a 70-year-old Goshree Island Development in the thuruthu. But they are the mainland and have all the T

Police Station but the police only way of income for people O resident of the island, whose sister Authority (GIDA), one of the two persistent with their unfeasible basic amenities. H

officials paid no heed to our like us and liquor helps us put up P suffered a stroke recently, talked government agencies for the demand.” One of the islands even hosts complaints and said that we are with the stink of cleaning human about the difficulties of ferrying development of Kochi, said that Talking on the environmental the State’s largest convention ‘untouchables’ so they will not waste.” the latter to a hospital. the project for an outer bund to clearance for the bund, Ms. centre and a tourist destination file any police complaint.” “There are around 200 families “We had to ferry her in our boat prevent the water ingression Varghese said, “Countless species under the jurisdiction of Kerala She has been living for the in this area and most of us are at night to a hospital 5 km away. during a high tide was ready but are a part of the fragile ecosystem Tourism Department. past 70-80 years in the colony involved in this work.” Carrying her to the boat, then the Coastal Regulation Zone of the thuruthu. Infrastructure Despite such unequal where the residents eke out a “After the liquor ban we had rowing across to the mainland and (CRZ) clearance was awaited. She development could disturb them.” developments, where poverty living through manual scavenging. no choice, so we started making waiting for a ride to the hospital said that there had been no However, a prominent prevails on one side and affluence A 60 year-old woman, a liquor in our own house.” Padma Rajappan outside was a strenuous task,” she said. proposal for the bridge so far. environmentalist, who does not on the other, the demands of the her home Now, the islanders phone auto She added that it was not wish to be named, said that, “If islanders still fall on deaf ears. Raised road brings down house in UP Sealed Nepal border prevents NIHIT SACHDEVA access to Indian healthcare SAHARANPUR : The flooding MAYANK KUMAR country do not need a passport or a restrictions. We are one family, started when the road in front of his visa to visit the other, resulting in separated by COVID regulations.” house was raised by 3 ft, said SITAMARHI: In September, an unusually close bond between Many feel that things have Mohammed Rizwan. Madhusudan Kumar, from Nepal’s the people who lived close to the turned from bad to worse since A

Rizwan, 48, is a tailor at the V border district of Dhanusa, wanted border. June 12, when the Nepal E

Behada Khurd village in the D to come to India for his appendix The restriction-less travel led to a paramilitary forces opened fire H

Muzaffarabad Block here. He lives C surgery. But, he found that he situation where Nepali people on along the Indo-Nepal border under A S with his wife, Rizwana, and couldn’t because a global pandemic the border area was fully dependent Sonbarsa police station, in which T I

daughter, Tabassum, in a house that H and the escalating tensions between on the Indian side for medical an Indian national was killed and I

might turn into dust any moment. N India and Nepal kept the border treatment and groceries because it two others were injured. The reason: the 2014 relaying of sealed. was nearer and cheaper. "Never has a bullet been fired at the road outside Rizwan’s house, The 51 transit points along the All that changed due to the the Indo-Nepal crossing in the past, which leads to Chhutmalpur, a way were sealed and the once lockdowns and with Mr. Oli I cannot call it a border as it is major town in the district. friendly security men were now blaming Nepal’s COVID misery on practically not one," said Rana Tej Rizwan said that when the level Mohd Rizwan at his shop grim and serious. India. Pratap, former principal of a local of the road was raised, his house To make matters worse, Nepal "We used to buy our clothes and college under Bihar University. became lower and every time it Prime Minister K. P. Sharma Oli vegetables from Indian markets as Anil Kumar Jha, a senior leader rained, water began to enter his deewar,” (The wall has fallen down blamed unrestricted border they were cheap, but now we have of Nepali Sadbhavna Party, said house. four times), he said. crossings by Indians for the to buy them at higher prices in “Everything will again get back to He has complained about this Rizwan’s daughter Tabassum escalating COVID-19 crisis in his Nepal," said Nawal Mehto, a normal after the pandemic.” multiple times to local officials. alleged that their plight was country.. school teacher. "The unprecedented situation Then, in 2018, a government because they were Muslim in a "For any medical emergency we For people in Sitamarhi, the generated due to the pandemic has official made a visit and took Rajput dominated village. used to visit Indian hospitals which crisis is disastrous. forced both the governments to seal measurements of the house and its To be sure, there is no evidence are hardly 30 km away. Now with "In my village, almost all all crossings connecting the border surroundings for building drains that Rizwan’s religion played any the restrictions, we have to travel families have relatives in Nepal. villages. It is a matter of few sufficiently wide to divert the role. But state-watchers say any Cracks in the wall of Rizwan’s house are getting bigger. 240 km to Kathmandu for the Family members are not able to weeks," he added. rainwater away from his house. development activity in Uttar treatment," said Mr. Kumar. meet each other since the The Indian officials also agreed That official retired in 2019. Pradesh always has a social and not necessarily mean the upper Rajputs.” Nepal and the Indian state of lockdowns," said Devesh Kumar that things would get back to Rizwan feels his lawyer is also political angle. caste. It is the vote bank of the According to Census 2011, Bihar share a 640-km-long border, Thakur, a villager from Riga at the normal after the pandemic. keeping him in the dark about Sidharth Mishra, a senior party which is in power. In Behada Khurd has a total with 14,000 villages close to it Indian side. "We understand the problems of whether a case has been filed or journalist and former editor of The Mayawati and Mulayam Singh’s population of 3,443 people which spread across seven districts of Ajay Kumar, an Indian the people residing at the border. not. Pioneer in Deli said, “The time, former Uttar Pradesh Chief includes Dalits and Muslims but Bihar and three provinces of Nepal. businessman running a small The people of Nepal are suffering The retired official and the dominant caste always draws the Ministers, it was the Dalits and the dominantly, the Rajputs. The long history of India and factory in Rautahat district of more due to the lack of lawyer could not be reached for contours of development in a OBCs (Other Backward Castes) Behada Khurd panchayat Nepal date back to the times of the Nepal, said "We have land and infrastructure," said a Sashastra comment. particular area.” respectively while at present, for president Suman Rana could not be origin of Buddhism. business set-up in Nepal, it is Seema Bal (SSB) official “Chaar dafaa gir chuki hai “By dominant caste, one does the Bharatiya Janata Party, it is the reached for comment. Today, the citizens of either unimaginable to live with these requesting anonymity.

Rohingyas brave poor camp conditions, Islamophobia Alone, over the hills and far away PALLAVI KESWANI including drinking. Many suffer camp residents then moved to the Pradeep Sinha,*42, a fish tested positive for COVID-19, the from water-borne diseases. They present site. vendor, said “I bring about 15 to 16 Ministry for Home Affairs asked NEW DELHI: “That’s not ours. rush to the nearest private clinics While most men work at kg of fish.I know everyone by the States to trace the Rohingya That belongs to the Indians”, said as getting treated at government construction sites, a few, including name and I trust them to pay refugees who had attended the Abdul* (32), pointing to a hospitals is an ordeal. “We have Abdul, have bought e-rickshaws. honestly. I take what they give me same and test them. “They tested farmland, less than a kilometer tried going to government Some like Zubair* make use of the after everyone finishes buying.” the entire camp twice. Not one from the Yamuna river. Abdul’s hospitals but the people there make skills they learned back home. Rehman* (57), a local tailor, tested positive”, said Zubair. family is among the 55 Rohingya a huge fuss over our identity cards. Working in a shop, Zubair said “I don’t have much to offer According to the UNHCR, families living in a refugee camp at We have only the ID card provided undertakes translation projects for monetarily, but I feel the need to 18,000 registered Rohingya Madanpur Khadar, South Delhi. by the UNHCR [UN High Google in his spare time. He check upon them.” refugees stay in different States of Kachha huts built of tattered tent Commissioner for Refugees]”, said knows eight languages, and The Rohingya refugees, who India. The Centre, however, has cloth draped on wooden frames Abdul. Many women give birth to translates from the Burmese and fled to India after religious maintained that the total number of line the small settlement on the children at the camp itself because Rohingya languages to English. persecution in Myanmar, have also refugees in India is 40,000, roadside. A large metal board of the problem. Zubair’s family is among a handful had to deal with targeted including those who entered announces that the site belongs to “I was the first from my family of the camp residents who own Islamophobia. Since the camp is “illegally.” In September 2017, the the Uttar Pradesh Irrigation to come to India,” said Abdul. He smartphones. His two sisters study located very close to Shaheen Centre told the Supreme Court that Department. A small, makeshift then brought his parents, wife, and online at the Jamia Milia Islamia Bagh, the epicenter of the anti- it considered the refugees as a “I’m afraid of using gas cylinders. I have seen on TV how mosque stands next to the board. three children. They were housed Senior Secondary School. Most of CAA protests last year, the “serious security threat.” women get burnt using gas stoves. We collect fallen wood Social distancing is a cruel joke in a camp at a different location, on the children attended the school refugees were aware of what was At the South Delhi camp, the for our stoves,” said A.S. Putty, who lives alone. Putty was a for the families that live in shared land owned by the Zakat adjoining the site before the happening. “We didn’t dare to step refugees express their wish to worker in an estate at Kodagu, Karnataka, where she faced huts. “My parents live with three Foundation, an NGO. A fire in lockdown. out of the camp during that time,” return. “Who doesn’t want to go sexual and physical exploitations. Widowed, she forages in other elders,” said Abdul. April 2018 destroyed much of his Besides the UNHCR and some said Abdul. back home,” asked Abdul. the deep forests, goes alone to the ration store 2 km away Over 250 people share four belongings, including the identity NGOs, residents of the nearby JJ In April last year, after some (*Names have been changed on and spends her time raising livestock. “Pythons swallow eggs handpumps for their water needs, proofs given by the UNHCR. The Colony also help the refugees. visitors at a Tablighi Jamaat event request, to protect identities.) from the chicken coop,” she said . JANUARY 15, 2021 10 SOUTH

P 11 Stigma, maladies, suffering P 12 Art scarred by caste conflict P 14 Concern over port expansion

Minimum wages out of their reach

Poor pay, private borrowings keep Karnataka’s domestic helpers perennially in debt

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MEDHA NIDHI S sweeping and mopping the three I Jayanagar, Bangaluru. Like there are over 4.75 million villagers to migrate to the city, with

H D

homestay rooms and the main I Kavitha, she too depends on domestic workers in India. The women taking up jobs as domestic N

BENGALURU : Kavitha farmhouse. She then clears the informal loans from her employers. report states that changing cultural help. A

Lokesh, 30, moves around mango leaves on the yard. After a H Her son needed a phone for his norms in urban spaces saw both Karnataka is one of the few D

barefoot, adding colour to the room 15-minute break, when she is E online classes, for which she took men and women entering the States that has set a minimum wage

M

in her bright pink saree. She goes served breakfast and tea, she : a loan of Rs. 20,000. Lakshmamma workforce, resulting in an for domestic workers.

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through her routine of sweeping, washes the utensils and checks if O makes close to Rs. 5,000 a month increased demand for domestic The Labour Commissioner H

collecting the dust into a pan and there is anything else to be done. P and even less from her tailoring workers. revised the minimum wages in disposing it. She surveys the room After finishing the day’s work, she job. The family depends mainly on On the other hand, the agrarian 2020-2021. But the law is hardly to make sure everything is in order. waits for a relative to pick her up in her husband, who works as a crisis in rural India forced more implemented. Then, she gets ready to talk. As she the evening. For her work, she is mechanic for Rs 10,000 a month. speaks of her life in Kukkuru paid a little more than Rs. 3000 a Most vulnerable village near Talakadu in the month. Dhahna Moktan is a migrant Tirumakudalu Narasipura Taluk, Informal borrowings worker from Basantapur in Nepal. What the law says Mysuru, Kavitha paints a picture of Kavitha’s husband died by She moved to Delhi with her According to the 2017 Rs.13,000 a month. Besides poor what life is like for domestic suicide three years ago, leaving her husband seven years ago. In 2016, notification issued by the wages, the other grievances of workers. alone with two boys, aged seven she came to Bengaluru for better Karnataka Department of Labour domestic workers which remain Every morning, she wakes up and four. She was burdened with job prospects. and Skill Development, the unaddressed are overwork without and finishes her daily chores - many responsibilities, the most Dhahna works as a domestic minimum wages for domestic weekly offs and lack of insurance sweeping the house, cooking, pressing of which was paying off Making ends meet: Kavita Lokesh (inset) at her work - help and her husband is a security workers for washing clothes, and pension. bathing her children, feeding the loans. “We took loans because we place, a farm estate-cum-homestay, in Kukkuru village, Ta - guard. “I get Rs 2000 from every dishes, cleaning and cooking was A study by Rohan Gudibande cattle - before walking 5.1 km to needed money to feed the cows and lakad, Karnataka house and I work in six houses,” Rs.37.50 for the first hour, and Arun Jacob concluded: work, where she does more of the treat my husband’s leg. We took a says Dhahna, who has a three-year- followed by Rs.22.50 for “Notifying minimum wages alone same. Kavitha works as a domestic loan of Rs 3.5 lakhs for his old daughter and is pregnant with successive hours. For eight hours cannot make much difference to helper at an eight-acre farm estate- treatment. I’m still paying that off,” informal ‘hand-loans’ from people and co-operative societies is 68%. her second child. of work, it is Rs.195 a day, at the the lives of domestic workers. A cum-homestay close to her village. says Kavitha who took an in the village. There is still Rs. 2.5 Kavitha is among the 32 % who Domestic workers are among the monthly wage at Rs.5,070. strong, transparent monitoring The first thing she does is additional loan of Rs 1 lakh to keep lakhs to be repaid,” she says. In borrow informally. most vulnerable sections. mechanism accompanying such change into her saree and wait for the household running after her Karnataka, the percentage of credit Lakshmamma, a tailor, works as According to a 2013 report of the In 2019, this was revised to legislation, is critical.” instructions. Her duties include husband’s death. “They are accessed formally through banks a domestic help in three houses in International Labour Organisation, U

Rural work Z A R Tamil Nadu street theatre artists A H

scheme to T O P

A L their rescue struggle to keep dying art alive A W R SAI VENKATESH Development (MHRD). He points (open street plays), etc., are some do”, he says. “For instance,” he J U

A SRILEKHA to a series of dusty wooden chairs of the prominent forms that attract points out, awareness on issues like : O al vankodumai (sexual abuse) T CHENNAI: Cheenu, who and cubicles in his office and people’s attention. Song and dance paliy O are better H THIRUVANNAMALAI : irons clothes for a living, hundred remarks: “There were 30 people in are the popular modes of and sex education P Kannapillai (70), as an adult metres away from a white building this office. Now there are just communication. conveyed in villages through street member of a rural household, is with a security guard and an old seven. This number will also Kumaragurudasan says street theatre.” eligible for work under the ambassador car, never knew it was reduce soon.” plays and their audience were in a Mahatma Gandhi National Rural a government office all along. Kumaragurudasan is a street state of decline even before the COVID-19 effect Employment Guarantee Scheme “This is the recognition we get theatre artist with a doctorate in pandemic struck. However, he (MGNREGS). However, the after working for so many years,” theatre. A major part of his work feels, those who have been Since the major objective of money is not enough. “Corona has Kumaragurudasan, a Research involves hiring and training private watching street plays will remain street plays is to spread awareness hit our lives badly,” he says. Fellow at the State Resource street artists across Tamil Nadu to loyal to them, irrespective of on important issues, the artists Farming, right now, is so Centre (SRC), Adyar, says. For perform shows and create technological strides. “We establish perform in crowded areas. But the economically unviable that he years now, recruitments for the awareness among people. Street a live, physical relationship with pandemic and lockdowns cannot repay his loans, he adds. SRC have been put on hold by the theatres, especially Therukoothu, the crowd, something which prohibited large gatherings, Nearly 30% of the 800-odd Ministry of Human Resource and puppet shows, Veedhi Naatakam cinemas and mobile phones cannot rendering them jobless. households in Pulavanpadi, a “Gathering crowds after the Narsamma, a farmer of Kamarapet village, Warangal village near Arni in the unlock was also a problem even Thiruvannamalai District, are though the artists adhered to social T ncing and other COVID covered by the scheme. N dista Right now, many are working on E norms”, Chandran, a performing M

E Double whammy artist of 22 years, says. Chandran

repairing the damage caused by the G

N from Erode and comes from a Nivar cyclone. They will work A hails R e artists. But every day for four months (around R family of street theatr A rofession does not give him 100 days), earning Rs 110 each L the p for these farmers A day. The scheme has been I financial stability. He and his team C E per show UJWALA POTHARAZU particularly beneficial for people P earn about Rs 600 for thin rice, she says. But it did not S excluding food and other expenses.

who lost their jobs during the Y happen. “We were already dealing B pandemic. “ WARANGAL : Farmers of with losses; additionally, there was O While timely payment seems to T “As the number of shows has Kamarapet village, Warangal, the pandemic. We have fallen into O

H come down, the income has be a problem — Rama, a 45-year- P struggle as they do not have very bad times.” old resident of Pulavanpadi, says dwindled. “The artists take up odd adequate water supply. While the For women, especially, the that workers haven’t been paid for jobs when they are not performing, pandemic impacted their export, pandemic was hard. “I had to work a month — the scheme is beneficial while some just drift away”, he rains in October destroyed their in the fields, come home and do for adults who cannot do heavier says. crops and homes. household work and manage my work. Uma, a supervisor, believes After the unlock phase, There are 10 families in the children,” says Rajitha. that the scheme has benefited Chandran signed up for three village, all into farming. They The pandemic has also gravely women. “Many women are shows to create safety awareness cultivate cotton, paddy, maize, red impacted the future of many working here,” she says. among the public. He relies on his gram and groundnut. farmers’ children. They are well- Anbalagan, a deputy block income from teaching at a local However, this year, “instead of educated and once held city jobs. development officer, says while the school in Erode. the usual 30-bag/acre yield, we got But due to the pandemic, they lost project ensures some work, it does According to Kumaragurudasan, only 15 bags,” says Sambasiva Rao their jobs and had to return to have other complexities. the lack of funds from the Central (32), a farmer. agriculture. Some people sign up for this but government is one major reason for “Initially the government asked Sambasiva Rao is one of them. “I go and work somewhere else, he the decline in street theatre. us to grow fat rice; later it am an MBA, and due to claims, adding that “a larger “The government is scared that demanded more of thin rice,” says unemployment, I had to return to number of people have joined the we will conduct shows, criticising farmer G. Rajitha (37). my village. Even here, there is no MGNREGS this year because of its policies and influence the The Telangana government profit. I have a family, and I need to the pandemic.” Therukoothu artists, performing to create awareness on water pollution audience,” he alleges. promised to pay double the price look after them,” says Rao. Pattambi potters Mahabalipuram, a shadow of its past RISHIKUMAR government announced a financial Known as a backpacker’s paradise,

MOHANLAL assistance of Rs 10,000 to tourist L it is filled with budget hotels and A in aMAN EfEiSxH T over rule L

the chances of water shortage . The guides and maintenance assistance N restaurants. A

government also set up District MAHABALIPURAM : “You are to house boat owners to tide over H On a regular day during the PALAKKAD : Government Expert Committees to monitor and the first to ask how we survived the the pandemic. The Tamil Nadu O tourist season, the street is full of M

rules against mining for clay has control the mining of ordinary pandemic” says F. Irudhayam, 75, government gave us Rs.1000 and R foreigners and local tourists. Now, A

made life hard for Kumbarans, a clay. Ponnu, who set up his own a tourist guide at Mahabalipuram, some ration, that’s all.” M the street is empty. U

community of potters in Palakkad kiln and an adjacent pottery registered with the Tamil Nadu Says R. Stalin (39): “During the K “It’s been nine months since we I

district’s Pattambi. wholesale store in Palakkad seven Tourism Department Corporation tourist season, our monthly income H got any room bookings. The S I R

The Kumbarans are a caste years ago, says he is now forced to (TTDC). On December 14, 2020, used to be anywhere between restaurant gets a few customers and : O

based community of some 36 import clay from tile companies to the monuments of the UNESCO Rs.15,000 and Rs.25,000. Look at T we have started door delivery” says O

families who - legend has it - meet the needs. He also brings in world heritage site opened for our plight now” A few guides took H Vivek, 55, who owns the Blue migrated from Andhra Pradesh. what he calls ‘Bangalore clay’, tourists - after months of Covid- up odd jobs like masonry and P Elephant lodge which has a They practise their caste-based which costs him Rs.65,000 for a enforced lockdown. welding to sustain themselves. hundred rooms. occupation, but find it hard because truckload. The town, which used to be Much of the tourism industry in “There was a time when there the Kerala government forbids the Ponnu, who makes pots, well teeming with people from across Mahabalipuram is dependent on was no parking space on this mining of clay. rings, and other home decorative the globe, wears a desolate look. international tourists. “With no street” he recalls. V. Vedantham, Earlier, they used to collect clay items, says his business has fallen The livelihood of all those tourist visa being issued, I have lost Tourist guides outside Arjuna’s Penance, Mahabalipuram 52, who owns the Pallava Dynasty, from the fields lining the banks of drastically since the pandemic. A depending on the tourism industry, all hopes of seeing an international says that he used to get bookings the Nila river, locally known as the large slump in the sales also meant including tourist guides, people tourist anytime soon,” says asks Thangavel Bhaskar (58), an work despite the pay cut.” only from foreigners who stayed Bharathapuzha, says Ponnu, 44, that there were layoffs of some of running budget hotels and Kanniyappan. art master and founder of -Creative A smaller sculptor, R. on for months. According to the Department of the workers, he said. sculptors, has taken a hit. Another attraction at Sculptors Workshop. Bhaskar says Mohanakrishan, is disappointed Most of his bookings are from Mining and Geology survey report Talking about the unavailability The guides narrate their tale of Mamallapuram is the famous stone he used to pay his workers that the sector did not get any travel portals. The post-lockdown in 2016, the ‘Kerala Conservation of clay, he says big tile companies woes, standing near the famous sculpture. How did the sculptors anywhere between Rs.15,000 and subsidy or GST relief during the cancellation and refunds have put of Paddy Land and Wetland Act, have government passes and agents Arjuna’s Penance. K. Rajendran, survive the lockdown? “My Rs.18,000 a month before the difficult period. the entire industry in doldrums. 2008’ imposed restrictions on but he does not have access to 68, head of the local guides’ workers were with me all these lockdown. “There is no fixed sum The narrow lane of Othavadai “Nobody wants to take the mining of tile/brick clays, citing them. association, says, “The Kerala years, how could I let go off them,” now. All my workers agreed to Street leads to a scenic coast. liability” says Vedantham. JANUARY 15, 2021 SOUTH 11

Helping the Stigma, maladies young cope Of an enduring truce MONA PACHAKE and sufferings Panchayat has managed to keep the peace between T.N., A.P. fishermen at Pulicat TIRUCHENDUR: “I am getting myself trained for the TNPSC AISWARYA RAJ Herman said “Life is hard for exam without spending a single us especially after the pandemic. R. SAI VENKATESH penny and that is because of POONTHURA: On a beach in Earlier we had to bear classist ‘Thoondil’.” said Tina Vaz (23), Poonthura, Thiruvananthapuram, remarks, now we are seen as the PAZHAVERKADU: Crows flut- from Chettivilai, near Tuticorin. about 20 fishermen sang an carriers of the disease even ter against a brisk breeze to grab This girl was referrering to a non- elegy to the ground beneath their though we fare better than other prawns laid out near boats moored governmental organisation, feet, slowly being stolen by the places in the district.” The daily to the shore while fishermen sit Thoondil’ Foundation, which was sea as they hurled their fishing number of covid cases has been separating their catch from the started in 2018 to enhance skills nets. As they stood on the now less than three for several weeks, nets. A few tourists admire the and talent, apart from promotion of

20 metre-wide beach, which was according to data issued by the scenic view of the lagoon in front h academics, among students. s

one km wide15 years back, they Primary Health Centres. of them, wondering whether they e This is one of the NGOs t

sang praising the sea mother and The people’s plight increased should spend Rs 1000 on a boat a launched by passionate youngsters the fish they caught in the nets manifold after the Covid- ride across. Another day at the k to promote extracurricular n

Poonthura, situated 10 km induced lockdown as the entire Pazhaverkadu or the Pulicat Lake, e activities among schoolchildren in V

away from Thiruvananthapuram area was shut down for six Thiruvallur, Tamil Nadu! coastal villages of Tuticorin. i

Central, bears little resemblance months. They could not go into The fishermen of Pulicat rea- a “We extend our training and S

to the “misbehaving lot” picture, the sea for more than five dily narrate their tales of liveli- services to develop innovative

portrayed by the media. When months. hood, poverty, tourism, types of R ideas among students and try to

:

the pandemic struck, the first “The beach was wide for 100 fish in the lake, fishing nets and t bring them out,” said Mr. Trison i

case of community outbreak was fishermen to sell together their auctions. But the most interesting d Fernando (25) of Thoondil . e

reported here. Lockdown catch 15 years ago, now the story is one of the decades-old ri- r At first the people from the

valry with the fishermen o C followed, military personnel width has dwindled,” said f villages of Periyathalai,

Andhra Pradesh across the o were deployed and the Peraprais, a 55-year-old border. t Thisayanvilai, Padukkapathu,

movement of the locals was fisherman. From stealing nets to assaulting o Chettivilai, all in Tuticorin district, closely monitored. The houses nearest to the sea and even killing one another, they h and many other places did not P “The mayhem in this town are under the 50-metre distance have seen it all. Thankfully for believe in these organisations but was extensively covered by the and they are flooded during high them, the tensions have reduced a now they trust them more than they media. The locals were seen tide. “The Rs 10 lakh provided great deal now. do schools. Most of the children coughing at the healthcare by the government for Rajasekar, a fisherman, says the Fishermen of Korai Kuppam, Pulicat. Some have seen violence between A.P. & T.N. groups in the past from these places dropped out after workers who came to collect rehabilitation is too less an three-decade animosity is “almost class 10 due to poverty and in the samples and assembled with no amount. The sea is the life and extinct.” Rajasekar is one of the absence of a higher secondary regard to physical distancing,” livelihood for everyone here, 500 fishermen families living near their end, we take their nets away fishermen of the two States keep the truce. “When a hundred school. Thoondil focuses on extra- said Herman Eldaphonse, a 25- who would leave it?” he said. the Pazhaverkadu lagoon. He and wait for the panchayat to bordering the lake was effectively people fight, it is hard to pick out curricular activities among these year-old man. “However, our Adequate measures like geo- learnt fishing at a very young age resolve the issue.” captured by novelist the instigator and even harder to children which they otherwise hardships due to sea incursion, tubes and groynes for curbing and has seen many incidents of Boundary demarcation is Radhakrishnan in his book jail all of them,” says would not pursue. “In the sea erosion seldom make news,” the frequency and intensity of violence between the fishermen of another festering issue. R. Selvaraj, Pazhaverkadu Varalaaru (The Radhakrishnan. Most issues, thus, beginning we randomly chose 5 he said. sea incursion and erosion have the two States. an overseer at the Tamil Nadu history of Pazhaverkadu). are resolved by the panchayat or students from each village and There were no quarantine not been built in Poonthura. The Illayaraja agrees with Rajasekar. Fisheries Department, says a series According to him, the fishing the village elders. lately we have succeeded in our centres or hospitals for Covid demands were made since the “Fishermen from A.P. even come of three to four palm trees, decided habits of those residing in the The local police Naik, R. Prabhu approach,” said Maria Joseph(43), patients in Poonthura. “Patients coast was hit by cyclone Ockhi. to these waters, stay here for a upon in the past, still acts as the villages along the Sriharikota Deva, 26, agrees he has very little one of the tutors. Thoondil handles from Poonthura said that they There are almost 40 fishermen week or two, fish and go back” he “boundary line.” island (Andhra Pradesh) to the to do to control crime in the more than 1000 students. More were ill-treated in quarantine from Poonthura still missing says. But he is quick to point out Muruga, a 26-year-old Pazhaverkadu lagoon (Tamil villages. than 60 % of the students have centres. The family members of after the Ockhi disaster. that some of their fishing habits do fisherman, affirms that the palm Nadu) triggered a series of attacks But the shadows of the past discovered their talent and started these people were enraged. This “At the year end, people cause “trouble.” tree demarcation is followed in for three decades, from the 1980s. refuse to go away. Muruga says to work on it. caused the misdemeanour when make offerings in church for The A.P. fishermen, he claims, villages across the lagoon. He talks of a particular incident Andhra fishermen sometimes tie Eera Kaatru , started a year ago, the health workers came here for dead people. Some women do use the surrukku valai (large nets Disputes are resolved by an in which fishermen from A.P. set the Tamil Nadu fishermen to their is another NGO that encourages testing. I am not justifying their not offer prayers for their used to catch thousands of fish) or unofficial panchayat, where a truce fire to villages near Thirumalai boats when they go to their schoolchildren to showcase their conduct, but the context was missing family members with rakshasa valai (monstrous nets), is enforced by the concerned Nagaram and Arambakkam in territory to catch fish, the truce talent in dance, singing, art work removed when this issue came in the hope that they might be which harms fishing. villages. Tamil Nadu. A panchayat meeting notwithstanding. and sports in various villages. the news,” said Simpson Xavier, stranded in some islands and will The net traps the food that fish “You are treated as an outsider was convened and the villages “They still see us as outsiders. It trains the children in secretary at the St.Thomas return someday,” said Herman. feed on, leaving the fishing ground if you don’t adhere to the entered a truce, agreeing on You have to ask them five or six silambattam (a weapons based Church. devoid of fish, says Ilayaraja. panchayat ruling”, he says. allotted timings to fish. times for a glass of water. But the martial art). The villagers are happy “When we see such activities from The tension between the The panchayat has managed to tensions do not go out of hand.” about it. Literally, on WAY TO GO ‘Where is Sarkar?’ the road use. When we use it, the waste, GAUTHAM S R KAMALA MENON instead of flushing down, comes up and the odour is unimaginable,” CHENNAI: On the streets of PERINTALMANNA: “What says Rajan. The people of the St. Thomas Mount here, a group sarkar? It has done nothing for us,” colony still defecate in the open of families has been living in a says Janaki, a tribal from the . kind of settlement for more than Panambi SC Colony. The colony is ‘Poor menstural hygiene’ 10 years now, without a proper situated at a height of 1200 ft on house. Selling bottled phenyl and top of a hill. With no proper toilets and water cleaning acid is their only The eight tribals living here facilities, menstrual hygiene is livelihood. belong to the Kattunaikan another big issue. “I use neither M.Raja (32), head of one of the community. Their houses are built sanitary pad nor cloth. I bathe families, who has been living in on loosely placed bricks and regularly,” says Shandha, mother of Chennai even since he was born, wooden planks, and tattered clothes two girls. says that during day, all of them hang from the hill. Cattle, hens and Janaki is, quite understandably, N spend their time on the road. O dogs roam freely around the bitter. “The government has been N

At night, and when it rains, E houses. making false promises for years. M

they find shelter under the A “We don’t have water or Politicians climb this hill only L elevated tracks of the St.Thomas A electricity. We walk down this hill when they come to ask for votes,” M

Mount Metro Station. A to buy medicines and groceries. If she says. K

“My father, when he came to R we fall sick, we don’t visit Her three children stay in a

: T

Chennai, did not get a ration card. I hospitals. Yes, we have an excellent hostel run by an NGO so that they D

That was the problem; since then, E view with no use at all,” says can pursue their education without R nobody in my family has had any C Rajan, Janaki’s husband. any hindrance. Rajan is the only

O

chance to get any official T person who goes to work from the O

document for ourselves,” he says. H “An ordeal!” colony. Raja, father of two, says that of P “I cut weeds, climb coconut the more than 25 families living “We have to climb down the hill trees and build wooden fences. I there, near the St. Thomas Mount to fetch water. It’s not easy as we earn between Rs 600 and Rs 900 a Railway Station, only 10 remain are all getting old. We carry pots day.” For the government, the small now. and several bottles on our head,” settlement hardly seems to matter. For the others, the Tamil Nadu says Neeli, feeding her chickens in An amount of Rs 1 crore has been government allotted houses at her hut. In 2017, the Kerala sanctioned to meet the tribal Padappai, 13 km from Tambaram. government set up four bathrooms, communities’ basic necessities. But The 10 families, including his, A fisherman out on Kadalundi river, Kozhikode. Originating from the Western Ghats, Kadalundi is a major river in the area, in addi - blue vertical boxes, near their none of the money seems to have did not get the benefit because tion to the Chiyar, Bharatapuzha and the Tirur river. The rainfed river runs for 130 km before draining into the sea homes. “With no water or proper been used in the Panambi SC they were in their native place, ventilation, the bathroom is of no colony. Salem, when houses were allotted. “I hope they give me a house at least before Pongal next year [2021], “ he says. Referring to the new location, Desperate fishermen double up as boatmen to keep afloat Vishwa (40), another head of a has been in the fishing trade. but visiting Pazhaverkadu, to earn an period. Selvaraj says each family, says, “It was like being on GAUTHAM S he doesn’t want his children to income during the days they do not fisherman family that has a family the Andaman Islands, very far follow in his footsteps. Why? go fishing. He says that out of card will get Rs. 5000 once, as an S away from the people and places PAZHAVERKADU: In the There is lot of competition but about 20,000 fishermen in the four allowance during the lean period. M

you know.” busy market lane here, you hear very little income, he says. A panchayats around Pazhaverkadu, A. Lingesh, a 24-year-old H

“I once visited the houses that typical cacophony, of people “Fishing as a profession is T 100-200 offer boat rides. diploma holder from SP Kuppam, U were given to the other families. selling fish, eateries serving dying. The income from this alone A R. Selvaraj (33), Fish Overseer near here, however, says Rs. 5000 G

It will be difficult to do business breakfast and the commotion of is not enough to run the family and : at the Fisheries Department office is not enough to run the family. T I there.” morning traffic. so I’m forced to work at harbours D here, says the government has M.K. Sharif (54), Tamil Nadu E

He says, “The other people Amid this, A. Rajasekar, 35, as a dock worker.” He says the R come up with welfare schemes to president of the Chennai Fish C

who live near the [allotted] houses comes close to you and asks, “Do meagre profit that he earns from O help the fishermen. Vendors’ Association, says, “The T at Padappai, choose to pick fights you want to go boating?” He is a fishing cannot be taken home and O Under one of them, ‘National amount that the Government gives H with us because we are poor.” fisherman who doubles up as a he reinvests it in the trade. P Savings-cum-Relief’ Scheme, a fishermen is similar to the amount Both Raja and Vishwa say that boatman. R. Anandhan (32), says that fisherman should generate Rs. that will be given for the Pongal it is the women and children who Like him, almost all natives of when his father entered the trade Moored boats of Pazhaverkadu fishermen 1500 over nine months, and the festival next month; it is not of struggle every day on the streets. Pazhaverkadu, also known as 30-40 years ago, there was six months, and now you are lucky our families go to work to make State Government and the Centre great help but there is no option.” There are no proper bathrooms Pulicat, a small fishing town 60 business for at least 11 months a if you get business twice a month, ends meet. There is no other will each contribute a matching During the ban, fishing is and toilets and they are forced to km north of Chennai, are year because of abundance of fish, he says. option.” sum. The amount, Rs. 4,500, will prohibited to aid in conservation of do everything in the open. fisherfolk. Rajasekar says that for but now they are very hard to find. “Nowadays, since we are out of Many fishermen, like Rajasekar, be given to the fisherman in three the species, as this period Alandur Corporation officials the past two generations his family The business slowly dwindled to work most of the time, women of are offering boat rides, to tourists instalments during the lean/ban considered the breeding season. were not available for comment Deprivation 2021 Page 12_Layout 1 12-01-2021 10:55 Page 1

12 SOUTH JANUARY 15, 2021 In need of help & sympathy Even art scarred by caste Transpersons like Sony are denied jobs, forced to beg A Kerala Dalit panchavadyam artist speaks on the discrimination in his profession UJWALA POTHARAZU MANEESH T After learning Chenda (another Caste is like a sticker on my percussion instrument) in the initial forehead,” he says. SECUNDERABAD: Sony, a PALAKKAD (KERALA): years, he went to the Kerala transwoman in Secunderabad, has When Kalamandalam Chandran Kalamandalam in Thrissur in 1980, Bias in temples been struggling since the pandemic (57), one of the pioneers in to change to the Thimila. Talking about temple struck last year. Like most trans panchavadyam (an orchestra of “My father used to cut and performances, Chandran says there people, she has no choice but to beg five instruments), an indigenous art shape stones, and earned Rs.14 for are temples that do not allow Dalits for a living. There are no other jobs form of Kerala, reached the every 100 stones. From that, he to perform inside its walls, even for her. Nenmara Temple to perform, he would pay Rs.5 as my fee,” he now. “In the Guruvayur temple, it However, during the lockdown, was happy. The year was 1987. remembers. has always been like that.” she could no longer beg because Soon, the organisers, much to In Kalamandalam, he was a Even decades after movements the railway stations were closed. his dismay, told him that he should disciple of Annamanada like the Guruvayur Satyagraha, The transpersons received no not perform during the day. They Parameswaran Maraar, the first which gave the Dalits the right to support from the government, says did not directly tell him the reason, person to theorise panchavadyam enter its premises, this Sony. “A Christian missionary but he knew it. He was a Dalit, a and write a book on it. discrimination in the name of group provided us with 5 kg rice member of a formerly untouchable “Performing Thimila, Chenda “norm” continues. “During the and 2 kg of pulses, sugar, oil and

caste, and they did not want the and Idakka (an hourglass-shaped Ilanjithara melam [a concert] at the other groceries.” U Z A T

crowd to know it. drum) was restricted to the upper Thrissur pooram, you can see only Devastating impact R H A S

Decades after Travancore King castes. The norm continues even the ‘Maraars’ and the ‘Pothuvals’ For transpeople, already H E T E Balarama Varma’s ‘Temple Entry now,” says Chandran, adding that [two higher castes] performing; not struggling from a lack of job O N P

A

Proclamation,’ which allowed he was the first member of the the Dalits,” he adds. opportunities, sexual harassment A M L

: A

people like Chandran into temples, T Scheduled Caste to pass out from Chandran, who has filed two and constant mockery, the I W J caste hierarchies and blatant D Kalamandalam in Thimila playing. cases in the Kerala High Court, has pandemic has been devastating. E U

: R T

discrimination still exist in Kerala. After getting out of the also demanded information under There are around one lakh I C

D O

Kalamandalam, and performing in the RTI on the Guruvayur transgenders in the Secunderabad E T R O

Continuing prejudices festivals across the State, Chandran Dewaswom. He has written a book area, according to a an NGO. C H

P O

Chandran is a living example of got a taste of the reality. “Thimilayile Jathikkalam” (The Sony (36) is one of them. She T O

how caste segregations have In one instance, his co- caste-period in Thimila), and wants was born male but began H continued to undermine talent in Kalamandalam Chandran performers, all of them belonging more people to come out and be developing female hormones at the P the name of caste in Kerala. to the higher castes, backed off vocal about the discrimination. age of seven. In 2015, she went for “My name doesn’t have a ‘tail’ received over the years, the Dalit from performing alongside him. “The problem here is not a gender reassignment surgery. Her Sony got no government support during the pandemic. like other names do. That is where identity has always pulled him “If I am the pramaani (the someone’s lesser talented in the art; family did not support her decision, the problem lies,” says Chandran, back. leader) in a performance, how can It is the artist himself,” he says. at first, she says. “My co-workers were jealous people misunderstand us. They with 47 years of experience in Rejection and disrespect have the higher caste people perform “Later, my mother accepted me because our boss used to praise me harass us while we beg at traffic drumming Thimila (one of the been a constant throughout his under me,” asks Chandran, “My name doesn’t realising that hormonal changes for my work. Because of their signals and railway stations,” says panchavadyam instruments) in career, he says. rhetorically. were not my mistake,” she says designs and disputes I had to Sony. over 7,000 shows across the world. Born in a Scheduled Caste Now a visiting professor at have a ‘tail’ like She married her cousin, but he resign”, she says. Sony has only one request. His name also features in the family in Peringode, a place that is Kalamandalam, Chandran recalls soon abandoned her, she says. Begging, therefore, became the “Recognise us and allow us access Limca Book of Records for leading known across the State for its one of his experiences in another other names do. Wanting to be financially only way for her to eke out a living. to basic facilities,” she says. “One the largest panchavadyam panchavadyam performers, school. One by one, the students That is where the independent, she decided to get a “We transgenders beg because we of my friends died on the road side performance. Chandran took his first steps into started dropping out of his classes. job at a textile shop. But that didn’t are not accepted at work. Not all as she did not have sufficient food Despite the laurels that he has the arena at the age of nine. “They came to know who I was. problem lies.” last long, either. transgenders are sex workers but and money during the pandemic.” Pandemic robs silk industry Talakad still in grip of this social evil MEDHA NIDHI S she continues to separate the good Sociology at Nagarathnamma Tribes live away from the village.” beans from the rotten ones. Meda Kasturiranga Setty The Scheduled Tribes, locally of sheen in Kancheepuram MYSURU: Gauramma, 37, sits On the farm, Gauramma spends Rashtreeya Vidyalaya College for known as Nayakas, formed 54.62 on a step outside her home in a her time doing household chores. Women, says that the caste per cent while the Scheduled RISHIKUMAR nightie, sorting dried legumes into She and her family do not enter the structure in rural and urban areas is Castes 33.17 per cent of total MOHANLAL two piles. She lives on a private farmhouse in spite of working in very different. “In villages, population, according to the Census farm near Talakadu owned by city- the farm around it. everyone knows everyone. There is of 2011 by the Directorate of KANCHEEPURAM: “What dwellers who visit every month. Sunitha, who goes only by her no way to escape caste unless you Census Operations. can I say,” sighs L.Pushparaj (48), Her husband Krishnappa works as first name, is a 32-year-old woman leave the village. In urban areas, it’s Sunitha has been working at the a weaver in Chinna Kancheepuram, a caretaker, looking after crops, from Kukkuru, a bigger village different. There is a possibility for farm-house for four years. The an area in the south Indian ‘town of cows and goats. close to Kurubalana Hundi. She being invisible in cities.” However, women of her community do not go silk’ that houses 500 weavers. He Both of them are from a nearby cleans and cooks for the farm Dr. Srivalli disagrees that caste out to work in the fields, she says. L

feels he has lost his battle with A village called Kurubalana Hundi in owners every time they visit. She does not exist in cities. “Caste is in That sort of work is done by “lower L

destiny. N the Tirumakudalu Narasipura declares proudly, without being caste” farm labourers. A

Kancheepuram is one of India’s H Taluk, Mysuru. Gauramma and her asked, that she is from the Arasu Madevamma is a Dalit woman in O

biggest production centres of pure M family belong to the Kuruba caste caste, which is said to descend from “There is no way her late 30s who works as a farm

R

silk. Since the outbreak of Covid- A whose primary occupation is goat- the Mysore royal dynasty. While labourer in and around B

19 in March 2020, many weavers M rearing. Sunitha falls at the top tier of the you can escape Shettahalli, close to Talakadu. U K like Pushparaj have been I Before they settled on the farm, caste hierarchy, Gauramma falls which falls in the Tirumakudalu H caste in villages S

dependent on private moneylenders I the family lived in Kurubalana somewhere in the middle. Narasipura Taluk R

and relatives for money to survive. : Hundi village. “Krishnappa would Gauramma says, “My caste is Asked if she has seen caste- T I because

Although it has been more than D work in farms and earn Rs 120- 200 also a high caste but it is one level based discrimination in the village, E

six months since the looms R per day and I would take the goats lower than Sunitha’s. Anyone can Madevamma says: “They do C

everyone knows

commenced their operations, the O to graze,” says Gauramma, adding eat what she makes.” She adds that discriminate based on caste ... even T

sales have been poor. “I used to get O that they used to own 22 goats. while Sunitha drinks coffee or tea those who call us to do farm work.

H everyone.”

Rs.10,000 for a saree before the P at her house, she does not eat the They don’t let us touch anything lockdown. Now, I get only ‘Throw away cups’ food that Gauramma makes. “She and they keep their distance from Rs.4,000,” says 55-year-old Weavers Gopi and Mariappan at their loom in a rented About the caste hierarchy in her doesn’t enter my house if I cook everything - who cleans your us.” S.Ekambaram, another weaver. house in Kancheepuram. village, Gauramma speaks very meat.” Even in her home, house, who cooks for you, what She pauses for a while before “But, then, something is better than openly. She practises Gauramma refrains from cooking caste is the person who collects asking, “Do you not watch nothing.” small, rented house. G.Selvakumar (50), another untouchability towards the “lower meat when the farm owners - your garbage everyday ..” Ambedkar?” She is referring to a “As a registered member of the Navaratri and Deepavali are weaver, agrees. “I have never seen caste” farm labourers who visit the Brahmins - are present. Explaining the geography of her Kannada TV serial, based on the co-operative, I received Rs.1000 a normally boom time. “But in 2020, showrooms this empty, with farm for manual labour. Sunitha’s family, on the other village, Sunitha says, “We Arasus life of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar. When I month during the lockdown but I the festival sale was so dull that owners sitting on the porch looking “We give them coffee or tea in hand, is vegetarian. “We do not live a bit away from everyone else. tell her that I have studied about get nothing now,” says M.Gopi Kancheepuram, for the first time, for customers,” he says. He adds: plastic cups so they can throw it even bring eggs into the house,” Next to us are the Lingayats and Ambedkar in school, her face lights (58) who, along with his father saw a sharp decline in the sale of “I am not sure we can recover by away. Even if they touch a gunny says Sunitha as she washes dishes. then the Muslims, followed by the up. “He is our caste it seems,” she K.Mariappan (70), weaves in a silk sarees.” Pongal.” sack, I throw it away.” she says as Dr. Srivalli GS, a professor of Scheduled Castes. The Scheduled whispers proudly. ‘Jobs alone do not guarantee respect’ Coimbatore, new destination ABIRAMI RAMESH earning because of financial struggles and the alcoholism of H for workers from other States CHENNAI: When you enter the S their husbands. They felt like E

Amma Canteen at the Muthu M “slaves” as they had to ask their

A Many with secure jobs back home come here for lesser work

Kumaraswamy Naicker Street, R husbands money for their personal

I

Chennai, you find three women M expenses.Their gesture, however, is S.N. THYAGARAJAN A R

working in a kitchen under a fan I thankless because their menfolk B N running at an extremely low speed. A constantly taunt them saying, “you COIMBATORE: That the

A : J T I

One of them holds an M.A. in feel and act bigger now just COVID-19 outbreak and the A D R E History. because you have started earning.” lockdown that followed left a lot of A R G C A

Amma Unavagam or canteen is They add that they still have to ask migrant workers homeless is well Y O H a food subsidisation programme T their husbands’ permission to known. But it also made migrant T

O N H

that was launched by the Tamil continue working. labourers out of people who had P S

Nadu government under former Samasundeeswari wanted to get steady jobs and never meant to : T I

Chief Minister Jayalalithaa. Under Samasundeeswari, Anandi and Jyothi at an Amma Can - a degree in law but her dream did leave their States. Many who D E

the programme, the State runs not get fulfilled. She wishes for a worked as teachers and skilled R

teen in Chennai. (Right) The rate card displaying the C

canteens at various places and world where youngsters are given workers, and pursued the education O

subsidised prices of food items. T

serves food at subsidised prices for jobs based not on what their of their choice before the pandemic O H

the poor. previous generations did but their struck, arrived from States such as P Anandi, 40, has completed Class Jyothi’s younger son has finished familiar with the language, we educational qualifications Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and West 10 and Jyothi, 45, dropped out after school and works in a simple, would have got better exposure and “Our children are our pride,” the Bengal to this city. They now do Krishna Mahat, a migrant from West Bengal Class 5. But Samasundeeswari has mechanic shop. “But my elder son, become more literate”. women say. “We pray all our menial jobs to survive. a post-graduate degree. They all a graduate, works in an air- The women find their workplace difficulties end with us because we Pawan Kumar (27) belongs to Bachelor’s degree in English house was taken over by creditors. say in unison that they work to conditioned showroom. That’s how both “flexible” and “mechanical.” have struggled a lot. Our children Siwan district, Bihar. He came to literature at Dhanbad when Covid “In August, a friend told me about meet their financial needs. Their important education is. That’s what They relax whenever they want and shouldn’t suffer.” They would like Coimbatore in September 2020 to struck. His father was a daily a company from Coimbatore hiring main expenses include house rent I am proud of,” she says. in the way they wish. They prefer their children to become more join a manufacturing company as wager who lost his job. Narayan people. I joined as maintenance and children’s education. Asked whether the women have to come to work and relax because confident and assertive. “We are maintenance worker. With a B.A., discontinued his studies to become worker,” says Krishna. They feel education is the only been looked down upon for not if they take a day’s leave, even often taken for granted by people B.Ed degree, he worked as a school a maintenance worker here. He wants to continue working ticket to dignity and respect in knowing English, Anandi says: during menstruation, their salary is around us. This wouldn’t have teacher and tutor, making Rs. Krishna Mahant (24), an here because he has a medical society. “People get to lead a better “Tamil is our first love, our mother cut since they are daily-wage happened had we been educated,” 10,000 a month. He earns Rs.750 a electrician from Haldia, West insurance for the first time in his life because of the better tongue and the best language. But labourers, who are here thanks to says Jyothi, who would like to be day, out of which he sends Rs.500 Bengal, comes from a joint family life. He intends to become an opportunities that come with deep down, we regret that we do the government’s undertaking. remembered as an Amma Canteen home of 14 members. He stopped getting electrician and bring his family education.” not know English. Had we been All three of them say they started employee. Narayan (21) was pursuing a work in March last and, by July, his here. SOUTH JANUARY 15, 2021 13 Rush to private schools Rising up despite the odds Kurubalana Hundi students want to study English Promoters, teachers help Kattu Naicker children access education MEDHA NIDHI S AISWARYA RAJ There are special classes for government, like GothraSarathi entrance exams,” she said. Soorya MYSORE: Kurubalana Hundi is Secondary Level School Certificate projects, which transports the is determined to write the a small village with three main S

WAYANAD: The children of the (SSLC) students conducted in children to schools have reduced equivalence exam that will enable roads and about 120 huts stacked I H

Kattu Naicker tribals of Anganwadis for the want of a drop outs. There are three jeeps for people to continue education with next to each other. The village D I N

Madhyappadi and Gajagadi at better place. Teachers from various children in Madhyappadi and no restrictions on age. belongs to the Tirumakudalu A

Aranappara in Wayanad are schools in Wayanad visit the Gajagadi. However, Gajagadi is not “If I don’t go to students’ homes Narasipura Taluk in Mysore H D making tremendous progress in anganwadis to provide lessons for connected by road to the schools and urge their parents to send them District. There is just one public E M

education these students. and it takes a 2km trek to reach to school, there would be only three school right outside the village -- : O

“I want to become a doctor,” Children are admitted to the there. “Even if we leave home at 8 or four students who will come,” the Government Higher Primary T O said Soumya Raju, daughter of an Aranapara LP school at the age of a.m., it would be 10.30a.m. when said Vijayan N.B, a promoter who School. Right now the school, with H illiterate estate worker. Soumya works tirelessly to enhance the one teacher and less than 20 P studies in 9th standard at Model educational prospects in the students from 4th standard to 6th Residential School, Kaniyapetta. colonies. The real progress lies in standard, is closed due to Covid-19 Years in hostel and exposure to a the fact that till three years ago pandemic.. different environment has set her many children in the region used to While there is no knowledge of apart in terms of health from her work alongside their parents in the the number of children living in the counterparts in the forest coffee estate at Kodagu, Karnataka. village, TK Ambuja, who lives village.The promoters, employed Stringent action against child here, said that most of the children by government,have worked hard J labour and frequent checkings in in the village attended private A R to alleviate illiteracy in the tribe, the Kerala border by police have schools in Talakadu, T. Narasipura A prevalent till a decade ago by Y diminished the extent of such or Mysore. Ambuja’s own children R K. Hundi Government School...struggling to survive engaging closely with the tribals. A practices, he added. “Education in studied in the government school W S

The Kattu Naicker (translated as I Gajagadi still remains deplorable. till the 7th standard before moving declined. Now, only the ones who Talakadu, which is 3.4 Km away A leaders/lords of forests), : The anganwadi that existed since to a private school in Gundlupet. can’t afford fees come here. Even from the village. Due to the O T

categorised as “Particularly O 2005 was shifted to Madhyappadi Since the government school only the really poor students are joining lockdown, Aradhya attends online H

Vulnerable Tribal Group”, were P in 2018 as the region was hit by had classes till 7th, students were private schools through Right to classes on his phone. Aradhya’s hunter-gatherers, soothsayers and floods and placed under a red alert forced to attend high school outside Education,” he said, referring to the parents had wanted their son to had less interactivity with the Kattu Naicker children..moving ahead zone,” he said. the village. 2009 act that allows poor students study in an English medium school mainstream society. In a population “Many children in fifth grade do “The quality of teaching used to to get free primary education in so he could get a job in the city, he living in Kerala-Karnataka border, six and some children move to the we reach the school. Sometimes, not have foundational literacy and be good before. There were six private schools. said. “I’ll do what they [parents] which has a Dravidian language town for better education when we would have to stay outside the numeracy on account of erratic teachers, including lady teachers. During the lockdown, some of say.” combined by Kannada, Tamil and they are ten. “Many children are class for being late,” said Ratheesh attendance and disinterestedness,” But now everyone prefers to send the students approached the city- While students like Aradhya are Malayalam (called as nama- reluctant to attend classes and even M.R, the only student to pursue a said Mr. Jayaram said. Anoop, a their children to private schools or bred farm owners living around the encouraged to pursue higher bhasha) with no script as their parents are lackadaisical. Online degree in the colonies. class 5 studentsaid he had difficulty convents because they are English village to teach them English. Tania studies outside the village, and can native tongue, Soumya speaks classes have made it easier for them This has impeded many dreams. in writing and reading Malayalam. medium,” said Ambuja. Ramesh, who visits her farm house afford to, there are some who decent Malayalam which most of to circumvent these classes,” “I studied till 10th standard and “The locals converse in their native Due to the Covid-19 lockdown, every month, spent a few weeks cannot. Gauramma, who only goes the elders in the village are not Jayaram P. A, a History teacher in could not go for higher studies,” tongue and the parents’ illiteracy her son has returned to the village teaching some of the students by one name, is a local living on a familiar with. She is among three Tholpetty High school who visits said Soorya K, a 19-year-old- reduces the children’s vigour in and takes his online classes in the during the lockdown. The biggest private farm where her husband girls studying in the same school the colonies to persuade the homemaker. It is difficult to reach learning,” he added. government school. A handful of problem with the school, she said, works as a care-taker. Her son and there are 34 students in these children in going to schools said. higher secondary schools because A ray of hope amidst the disarray students like him come to the is the lack of human resources. Mukunda is in the 5th standard at villages, including those in “The students run off into the of the limited number of buses on is the toiling promoters like school for their classes, but formal “There aren’t enough people to the village government school. different residential schools with forests to evade teachers coming to time and lack of concession tickets Vijayan. “I had an instructor called classes are not going on. teach. The kids are keen on learning Gauramma did not think that her tribal reservations. fetch them,” he said. He walks 4 for students in the first year. “I Ashiq who used to confer me with HundiK Murali, the only teacher but people who can mentor them son would need to study further. “In The colonies have two km from the nearest bus stop every wanted to continue in the pocket money when I was in hostel. at the school, has been teaching properly are few,” she says. a few years, Mukunda will start Anganwadis, where the students day to teach high school students in residential school I had done my Many a day, when my family there for 4 years. “Before there Yeshas Aradhya is a 14-year-old going out to do farm labour and watch the government-sponsored- the colonies. schooling from but I was unaware couldn’t afford, these provisions were about 70 students here, but local who used to attend Jnana coolie work. He can bring some online classes in Victers channel. Many schemes by the of the dates for application and came in handy,” said Ratheesh. over the years the number has Gangothri High School in money home everyday.”

Lack of higher secondary . P

A Dropout rate impacts progress L

A KAMALA MENON schools affects students W J U

: MALAPPURAM: Jithu gets ready to MONA PACHAKE class 8 or 10. Also, some parents do O T

O go to work - weed cutting - in a nearby not send their girl children due to a H

P estate. He stopped going to school after TIRUCHENDUR: “Education in lack of transport. N

Rescued children at a Sishu home class 10. His younger brothers, Sojan and O all forms plays a crucial role in Often, coastal villagers end up N

Kannan, are also dropouts. “I didn’t feel E moulding teenagers into perfect sending their sons to work in the M

like pursuing my studies,” says Jithu, as human beings but it is not the sea and getting their daughters A

he wears his face mask, sliding it down to L child’s fault if it is brought up married. Home for runaways A

his neck.“My father was diagnosed with M without proper education” said In some cases, the children may A

UJWALA P K

TB. I had to start working,” says the teacher Madhinan, 53, sitting on a be sent to work in to big textile

:

teenager who earns Rs 600 a day. O rusted chair inside a leaky building showrooms in Chennai. T

NIZAMABAD : Santoshi (13) ran away from home A survey by the Samagra Shiksha O at his Little Flower High School at Lorrete Silvia (22) of H when her father went to jail. She wanted to study furt - Kerala has identified an average of 20 P Periyathalai, a coastal village near Periyathalai dropped out of school her, and her family was no longer letting her. She was dropouts a year in Mankada SC Colony, a here to work in a textile store for Rs found at the Nizamabad station platform by the Child hillside village in Malappuram, mostly A major problem in coastal 8000, before getting married and Help Desk and admitted in a home. “I want to study from theGovernment Model Higher villages of Tuticorin district is the having her children. further and help the needy”, she says. Secondary School where Jithu studied. absence of higher secondary Her parents did not have money Many children run away from home due to sexual, “The dropout rate has been a major schools. to send her to other places for physical or emotional abuse, forced marriages or hurdle in tribal development. Education There are, in all, nine schools in education, putting her in a hostel, because they are forced out of school by their families has never been prioritized here. Some the coastal villages near she says. and made to work or beg. They are usually found at the reasons for the high dropout are parental Tiruchendur, two of them Fr. Stanley Fernando from railway station; they need to come here to go to over ill health, family discouragement and government schools with higher Chettivilai says he raised Rs. 40 districts or states. juvenile addiction to illicit alcohol. Most Mankada Colony children engaged in work secondary classes, and the others lakhs for building a school in the Nizamabad’s Child Help Desk, a 24/7 emergency tribal families consider education a phase, private elementary school. village in 2018. outreach service for children in distress found at railway that’s all. But some are beginning to and food. Had we sent the children back In Wayanad, the Samagra Shiksha As a result, children are asked to But the money was spent stations, was established in June, 2019. “Our motto is to change their thinking,” says Ramdas, SC to their colonies, they would have gone Kerala has implemented a project through work after class X or get married. otherwise without his knowledge, provide shelter for the poor children who run away from promoter of the colony. astray. Most men are drunkards,” he says, which mentors translate the Malayalam While there is a government he regrets. their homes, counsel them and send them back,” says The Sai Snehatheeram hostel in pointing out that the chances of the content aired in the State’s educational higher secondary school at “I really felt a little irritated when Mr. Srinivas of the Nizamabad’s help desk. Perinthalamanna, about 10 km from children drinking illicit liquor are very channel into six tribal dialects- Paniya, Arumuganeri and Kayalpattinam the people thought that the luxury According to the Child Help Desk, 79 cases were Mankada, does its bit to educate the tribal high. “There have been cases of children Kuricha, Oorali, Kattunaykkar, Adiya and near Tiruchendur, in the interior of church is more important than a recorded in Nizamabad last year. Most of the children children. It has about 60 inmates. going away from here and gradually Kuruma. Butin Malappuram, the progress Periyathalai, Chettivilaiand basic building for a school,” he rescued were between the ages of 11-15. If the children “We ensure that the students are dropping out of school.” of the project has been slow. Kootapanai (the last one in said . are not orphans, their parents are counselled and enrolled in government schools,” says When online classes started in Kerala, “The Sai Snehatheeram hostel is a Tirunelveli district), people rely on Sr Mercy Vincent, teacher of the allowed to take their children home. Rescued children, K.R. Ravi, a social activist and hostel the dropout rate began to increase further godsend for my three children. They the nearest school at Padukapathu. elementary school at Chettivilai who are orphans, are placed in homes where they are trustee. He adds, “The hostel was not among the tribals because many cannot attend the online classes without any Children end up having to adds that there are enough children fed and educated. The children who are rescued are put closed even during the lockdown but afford smart phones or laptops. The hindrance,” says Leela, a woman choose between travelling vast in the area to start classes 11 and 12. in homes like ‘Sishu homes’, and are provided visitors were not allowed. The Internet connection is also very poor in belonging to the Kattunaykkan distances to reach school and taking “Now we have started to raise nutritious food and education facilities. municipality helped us by giving money Mankada. community. up a low-paid job after completing some money for a school.” Challenges in implementing tribal education schemes Irula families of Kanchipadi are torn between plunging into education and retaining their idyllic lifestyle

MEENATCHI PRABHU want. has studied till Grade 10. “In our time, we there is work to be done on the fields or District Legal Services Authority, is “After much effort, the parents have had to walk all the way to Kanchipadi and where work is available. baffled at why the Irula community is not TIRUVALLUR: Kanchipadi, a village started sending their children to school,” pick our teachers up. We also had to drop Job opportunities are few when you developing at all. “All the other in the Tiruvallur taluk, is home to 100 says Kanchipadi Panchayat Vice- them back,” she says. When asked why don’t want to travel far away from family, communities have come up to a certain Irula families. But you won’t find them in President Bharathi Raja. The primary she didn’t continue her studies she says and education is not given importance. extent. You now have SC representation the main square. school in Irular Colony has classes up to that “I have already achieved my dream. Most of them are employed in the in pretty much all offices, be it Around 2 kms away from the town, Grade 5. Children come to the school in I wanted to be a tailor, and now I am one.” Mahatma Gandhi National Rural administration or banking, but there are close to the reserve forest area, live the Kanchipadi from Grades 6 through 8. The She beams with pride as she shows the Employment Guarantee Act’s 100 day no success stories in these Irula tribes, and Irula community. They live in a separate few who choose to go to high school sewing machine that was given to her by work scheme. They are employed in odd there’s nobody to really help and guide area designated as Irular Colony. “Those travel to the nearby village of the Panchayat President a couple of years jobs like digging bunds for creating them.” Raja, too, adds that he has tried people are different from us. That’s why Kanagamma Chatram. back. Her sixth grade daughter, reservoirs, temple painting work and encouraging parents to put their kids in they don’t live with us,” says R. Veeraraghavan, 28, has lived in Rajeshwari, dreams of being a nurse. “But weeding work. school. However, they do not seem to Krishnaveni, a farmer from Kanchipadi. Irular Colony all his life. His parents if I have to live away from home, I won’t Vinoth’s elder brother has a degree in want it, he claims. “It’s hard to understand All the houses in the Irular Colony moved here from Manavalan Nagar in go,” she says. catering from Chennai’s Amirta how to help them.” have thatched roofs and many, exposed Tiruvallur. Veeraraghavan says there was The bonds of family and community International Institute of Hotel Perhaps the problem merely lies in brick walls.Youngsters play volleyball in no electricity or roads when he came here. seem to be strong. S. Vinoth, one of the Management. He says that he was given a very different world views and value the ground in front of the primary school He has studied until 12th grade, but chose few graduates in the colony, is a diploma job at a hotel but that he refused it as he systems. Veeraraghava seems to indicate built for the Irula children. The school to help his family and work in the fields. holder in Electronics and Electrical had to travel far from home. “We have as much. “We don’t really believe in building is old with peeling walls and the When asked why he did not pursue higher Engineering. “I got placed in a company happiness here. We’re not happy with the possession or being rich; just live for the playground is filled with rusting education he says that he “wanted to stay in Sriperumbudur, two hours away from outside world. We want to come back moment and live a simple life. I think M. Sita from the Irula community equipment. The building, not unlike the at home with parents.” here. But it’s too far. I want to be close to home at the end of the day,” he says. running after money and ambitions is state of education in the community, is in M. Sita is one of the few women who home,” he says. He now works whenever D Vijayalakshmi, a panel lawyer at the foolish.” PHOTO: MEENATCHI PRABHU 14 SOUTH JANUARY 15, 2021 N O

Pulicat fishermen uneasy over N E M

A L A M A K

pPeloaple’sn livesliho odf aond mrar inee lifxe stapnd tahreantensed, ireosidents a nod enfvir onpmenotalirstst R MEENATCHI PRABHU & Though fishermen will be GAUTHAM SELVARAJAN directly affected, the impact on women and children are far greater. TIRUVALLUR : M. Kumar, 30, R. Bhaskar, a 52-year-old former Sojan’s poster as a school leader brings his day’s catch to the shores fisherman, says, “Women, who go of the Pulicat Lake. Kumar keeps to sea and help fishermen in selling aside a few fish and king prawns, their daily catch, will have to cover the specialty of Pulicat, for his a lot of distance on foot because the family. The rest is sold at the route will be blocked by the port.” market. “Since I was 7 years old, R Selvi, a fisherwoman from Youth alcoholism: a I’ve been going to the sea with my Pazhaverkadu, “If fishing is taken father. Fishing is the only thing I away, there’s nothing else we can U know,” he says. H do. My family already has a loan B The livelihood of 10 lakh people A that we can’t pay back,” she says. R havoc for tribals P

like Kumar, who depend directly or I Adani Ports, in its revised R KAMALA MENON major reason for an increase in the H

indirectly on fishing, stands C proposal, has promised number of school and college T threatened, say the fishermen. A employment to those who will be PERINTHALMANNA dropouts. N E

Adani Ports has proposed an E displaced by the expansion. (MALAPPURAM): “We had such “Soon after he stopped going to expansion of the existing minor M However, the residents of huge expectations from him. Look school, he went to work with me,” port at Kattupalli, about 15 km Kattupalli Kuppam, who were at him … he can’t even speak says Jithu, Sojan’s elder brother. away from Pulicat or M Kumar, 30, returns to the shore with his day’s catch relocated by L&T when the properly,” cries Kumaran, pointing Then he started walking around Pazhaverkadu., according to existing port was built, complain to his son, Sojan. Wearing a yellow with a gang from a nearby colony. reports in the media. ocean currents, can alter the flow of construction of ports and harbours in the area. that the employment is unskilled school jersey, Sojan stands in a He slowly became addicted to A seaside lake on the border of currents. The revised plan proposes is a permissible activity according There are fears that the mouth of and ill-paid. corner, looking down and nodding alcohol.” Outsiders sell illicit Tamil Nadu, Pulicat acts as a the construction of two new to CRZ Notification 2011 & 2019 the Pazhaverkadu lake will be The men are employed in jobs when someone talks to him. alcohol and drugs at cheap rates in natural bulwark against floods and breakwater of a total of 12 km in and EIA Notification 2006 notified closed. The lake water, along with like ship painting and cargo loading People of the Mankada SC the colonies and the tribal children cyclonic rainfall. But, all this may length. by the Government of India.” sand and other sediments, will enter and unloading. Colony still talk about Sojan. “He often fall in their trap. change, say the residents. Political parties such as the DMK Environmentalists argue that the the ocean, says S. Ilayaraja, a 41- “How can we run a family with a was such an energetic child who Nights of fun and socialising, “If the company expands the and MDMK and environmentalists oceanic currents will be altered and year-old fisherman from Rs. 3000 monthly salary? We won many prizes in school. He was when the tribe sang and danced, port, we will have to leave fishing have opposed the plan. change the entire marine ecosystem Pazhaverkadu. "Many species of women also started going for work. the school leader but now he has have given a way to nasty-squabble and work for the construction Though attempts were made to of Chennai and that Pulicat Lake fish thrive near the place where the I have been forced to clean become hopeless,” says a nights. “The addiction to alcohol company,” says Kumar. get a comment, Adani Ports have will cease to exist. lake reaches the ocean. Our bathrooms for a living,,” says 45- neighbour. and the so-called development have There are close to 58 villages not responded. Meanwhile, the The sand dunes in Pulicat livelihood will be impacted by this year-old Sivakami. Sojan studied up to Class 10 in killed their culture. Now all that the surrounding Pazhaverkadu, all Thiruvallur district administration prevent the sea water from joining port,” he says. P. Anbu, 47, works at the L&T the Government Model Higher tribals do is work during the day, dependent on fishing. postponed a public hearing on the with the lake and the groundwater A Lingesh, a 24-year-old ship-building company. But he Secondary School. But, with time, get drunk and fight at nights,” says “Fishermen were one with revised masterplan for development of from becoming saline. If the fisherman from SP Kuppam, has a continues to fish. From his he started behaving differently. “He Ramdas, promoter of the Mankada nature. We knew which direction Kattupalli port in order to avoid a expansion takes place, the lake will college degree, but has come back grandfather’s time, his family has was good in studies and took part SC Colony. the ocean currents would flow in gathering because of the pandemic. merge with the sea, says J to continue his father’s profession. been in the fishing business. in extracurricular activities but he In some households, parents which month. But now, it’s not so However, a company spokesperson Prashanth, a researcher at the “Whether we live or die, it is with “On days when I go for fishing, started changing. He even offer alcohol to their children. They easy to gauge,” says 36-year-old M was quoted in media reports as Coastal Resource Centre in Besant this land,” he says. I leave around 3 a.m. with my boat, misbehaved with one of the grow up thinking that drinking is Kalaiarasan from Kattupalli saying, “Adani Ports & SEZ, as a Nagar. “If this port comes here, catch whatever fish is available and teachers,” says a GMHSS teacher. not wrong. Among some tribes, Kuppam, who works at L&T now. responsible corporate citizen, The sea water will enter the everything will change; the ocean sell it, and then leave for work Juvenile alcoholism has played celebrations are incomplete without Fishermen knew where to go to always strives to operate ground table, he says, adding that it currents will be altered, soil erosion around 8 a.m.In the fish trade, I'm havoc in the lives of the colony’s alcohol. “But things are getting catch fish. The breakwater, which responsibly in an environmentally- will pose serious challenges to will occur, and the sea will come my own boss. Nobody can question tribe. Besides leading to low life better now,” says Sukumaran, is constructed to protect ports from sustainable manner. The escalating water shortage problems into the shore," he adds. me,” he says. expectancy, drinking has become a Circle Inspector, Mankada.

Reduction in flurosis Poverty affects Chellanam, a life beyond monsoons mental health The area that is in the news for flooding in rainy season, is forgotten later cases in Nalgonda floods rise. K. A. George (85) and TANISHQ VADDI mitigate fluorosis in the district. ABIRAMI RAMESH. ADARSH B. PRADEEP his wife, Annie George (78), Then, in 2016, Mission recollect how the water had HYDERABAD: A recent Bhagiratha, aimed at providing CHENNAI: Poverty, as the KOCHI: “Had it been July, the breached the sea wall and the sand government scheme to control safe drinking water to all the adage goes, may be a state of mind. chair on which you are sitting bags, inundating their home. fluorosis, a disease caused by villages and cities, was initiated. But real poverty also affects the would have vibrated with each “We had four steps at our the deposition of fluoride in Its efforts have been very mind. Shankar Mahendar, a wave that struck the sea wall,” said entrance. Now all of them are under body tissue, in Nalgonda beneficial to the people of the psychology student, agrees. Sebastian V. J, a winning candidate the sand,” said George, who needs district is working. district. “Poverty affects your mental in the recently concluded local a walking stick for support. He said Inhabitants of the area have The late Rajitha submitted a health,” he says, adding that access body polls at Chellanam, Kerala. that the walls of his house been struggling with the memorandum to the Union to a mental health professional is Sebastian, belonging to developed cracks in July, when the condition since 1937. Health Minister Jagat Prakash often dictated by income. Chellanam 2020, a newly launched flood water had risen as high as his However, there appears to be Nada requesting a 300-bed Psychologist Mr Vardarajan non-political organisation to fight waist. a drastic reduction in cases over hospital exclusively for Sundaramahalingam points out that P

against the apathy of the E The Chellanam Janakeeya Vedi, the past few years—it went fluorosis victims that seems to while the struggles with mental E mainstream political parties, said D formed by the locals of Chellanam, from 967 to 0 in the last few have been approved. health are universal, children born A that the newspapers and television R has been holding relay hunger years. Speaking to Telangana Today, in poverty have to deal with poor P channels were filled with news of . strikes demanding a permanent Excess intake of fluoride Fluorosis Vimukthi Porata nutrition, have less access to B

Chellanam floods only during H solution for the issue of sea through food or water causes the Samithi president K Subash said resources and education, and their S monsoon time. “No one bothers R ingression. The protests have disease. Nalgonda’s groundwater “She was very happy when the parents are too busy trying to make A what happens after that or how we D reached their 415th day with each has always contained high fluoride-affected village started a living to spend time with them. A live here,” he said. member of the Vedi taking turns to fluorine levels of more than 2.5 getting safe drinking water “There is a lack of awareness and During every monsoon, the 17.5 fast in a day. ppm, affecting the teeth and through Mission Bhagiratha,” availability,” he says. km long coastline of Chellanam in Remnants of a house destroyed by the raging sea Outgoing vice-president of the bones of its consumers. In fact, Mission Bhagiratha All this affects cognitive south Kochi is battered by strong Chellanam panchayat, K.D. Prasad, Severe forms of the disease has created a positive impact all development. According to a 2019 waves that erode the land and the sand bags kept by the coast line and also to construct said that the government had can lead to disability and death. across the Nalgonda district. paper published by The Banyan, a invade people’s homes. Left government near the sea and placed pullimutts to break the enormous rehabilitated 17 families in the first According to a report in According to Anil Thav (44) 25-year-old NGO providing mental without government support and them as reinforcements for their force of the sea. phase of the Punargeham project of Telangana Today, Veeramala from Shivannaguda village, health care to people living in apathy to their long standing compound walls; the gates are Treesa (70) said that she and her the State government. “It is a Rajitha (30) who actively nearly every other person in poverty in Tamil Nadu, India is demand for the construction of barricaded with mounds of sand family had moved out after their voluntary project where we give participated in the protests for Nalgonda suffered from home to an estimated 150 million pullimutts (groynes - a low wall deposited by the sea during the home was completely destroyed in Rs. 10 lakh to people who are clean drinking water in the fluorosis, when he was younger. people with mental illness. built perpendicularly) to prevent previous floods.The children play the cyclone Ockhi. Abandoning willing to rehabilitate. We are not Nalgonda district passed away Thav, who is affected by “Mental health services are sea erosion, the people of football near the beach and use the their fish hatchery to the vagaries forcing anybody,” he said. recently due to a fluorosis- dental fluorosis, admits that he grossly inadequate and tend to Chellanam bear the brunt of the sea sea wall, which abruptly terminates of the sea, they have resettled in the A. Kunjachan (65), a fisherman, related health issue. grateful that the government is approach mental illness from a all year long. at the Bazaar area, as a gallery to east end of their plot, in an attempt whose house is less than 50 metres In November of 2013 District paying attention to this problem. disease perspective ignoring The people of Chellanam have cheer for their team. There have to move away from the sea. from the sea said, “With the Rs. 10 Flouride Monitoring Center “The coming generations won’t complex economic and social also devised unique ways to fight been long standing demands to However, with each year, the lakh even a house cannot be built, (DFMC) was established to help have to deal with this issue.” problems that contribute to the raging sea: they have removed extend the sea wall all along the frequency and the intensity of the let alone buying land.” wellbeing,” says the paper. Flooded Kattu Naicker children’s nutrition level on borderline village: people ADARSH B. PRADEEP Karnataka border, in Wayanad district, the supplies, we walk to their houses and with food supplements and who take WAYANAD: A few years ago, a local are a semi-modernised tribe. There are inform them of the date they need to visit home rations. However, it is for the age

tensed government hospital in the district turned 48 families in the former and 21 in the the Anganwadi. Still some don’t turn group of 3-6 alone that the Anganwadi is P E

A. SRILEKHA back a pregnant woman of the Kattu latter, with nearly 70 children in total. up,” said Sheena Manoj (36), a teacher able to prepare breakfast and lunch. The E D

Naicker tribe and she gave birth the same They mingle with a limited number of at Madyappady Anganwadi, adding that ones in the age group of 0-3 are A R P

THIRUVANNAMALAI: day at her home, said Sicily Jacob (48), outsiders, their children have started in such cases, she and the ayah deliver dependant completely on their parents . B Surplus water in the Kalampur the accredited social health activist going to schools and they receive rations the supplies on foot. for their food.The children who attend H

Lake near Arani in (ASHA) at the Primary Health Centre supplied by the government. “Even The road to Madyappady colony was boarding schools after the age of six, fare S R

Thiruvannamalai District has (PHC) at Appapara village. This and though we have eradicated stunting and widened a few years ago and is better in terms of their nutrition. They are A D flooded many villages in the area. incidents like a Kattu Naicker woman wasting among the children, the birth accessible by vehicles. However, the given breakfast, lunch, tea, milk and eggs A J.Babu, a social worker from giving birth inside a vehicle en route to weight of a new-born is as low as 1.5 Gajagadi colony is a 2 km trek from the Another advantage, which comes with Pulavanpadi panchayat, claims that the nearest hospital has made the tribals kg,” said Jacob. According to the Anganwadi. For the same reason, meat, staying in a hostel, is access to aggressive land-grabbing in the reluctant to approach a PHC, she added. Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, fish and vegetables are brought for sale medication and timely vaccination. Since area has exacerbated the issue. The Kattu Naickers or Kattunayakans babies with less than 2500 grams of birth to the Madyappady colony on small many adults do not believe in it, children The public in the villages has which translates into ‘king of jungles,’ weight have a greater risk of dying and vehicles and do not reach Gajagadi, often do not turn up at drives, despite petitioned the district are tribals found in the forests of are an indicator of poor nutrition restricting their diet to rice. repeated intimation, said Jacob. administration several times. But Wayanad, Malappuram and Kozhikode standards of the mother. “The adults go for work in nearby “Seeing their father returning home no action has been taken. As a districts of Kerala. Until a decade ago, The Madyappady Anganwadi coffee plantations or at Kodagu in drunk, there have been a few cases of result, more than 15 villagers they kept to themselves, allegedly maintains a list of all the pregnant and Karnataka. They leave by 6 am and children consuming alcohol,” she said, staged a protest and asked for practicing black magic and sorcery. lactating women in the two colonies and mostly skip their breakfast,” said Vijayan adding that forest officials at the Kerala permission to stage a roadblock Today, the Kattu Naickers found in supplies them iron and vitamin N.B. (48), the Tribal Promoter of the two check post are attempting to curb the against the lake canal's Madyappady and Gajagadi colonies at supplements along with wheat flour, oil colonies.There are a total of 33 children problem by ensuring that no alcohol is encroachment near Arani. Aranappara village, next to the Kerala- and urad dal. “To ensure that they collect in the age group of 0-6 who are supplied brought home from Kodagu. . Kattu Naicker children JANUARY 15, 2021 SOUTH 15 Trade-off between health and development Seven years after SIPCOT started its operations, Thervoy village in Tiruvallur grapples with the ill affects allegedly caused by industrialisation MEENATCHI PRABHU monsoon. Young boys play games The water from the five different Several other research papers operations here, there were no on the roads. water tanks around the village all also connect the incidence of cases of cancer or tuberculosis, TIRUVALLUR: Are polluted But things are changing. The have different tastes. We can taste cancer to petrochemical says Nesa Murali. water and skin problems valid coming of SIPCOT is changing the the chemical in the water,” said industries. Neither the companies “Nobody ever falls sick here, we trade-offs in exchange for a stable village, from an agricultural society Bhuvana Jeeva who works in the or SIPCOT responded to telephone used to live a healthy life, with income? to an industrial one. waterworks department. calls and e-mails seeking comment. nature,” says A Lakshmanan. After a four-year-long failed The companies are perhaps Ever since these industries Nesa Murali says that there is not Lakshmanan had complained to protest against the State Industries attracted to Thervoy’s distinction of cropped up in Thervoy, the primary adequate information to draw the the Pollution Control Board about

Promotion Corporation of having the highest number of U health center in the neighbouring connection between the coming of the smell in the air from the H

Tamilnadu Ltd (SIPCOT), the graduates from any village in the B Kannankottai village has seen three the companies and the cases of emissions of a biotechnology A residents of the second largest Tiruvallur district, says Ward-5 R confirmed cases of cancer, two cancer. However, the skin lesions, company which usually turns on P village in Tiruvallur have accepted panchayat member A Lakshmanan. I cases of tuberculosis and multiple he says, may very well have to do the chimney late at night, around H C

its health and environmental Some of them travel to the colleges T complaints of skin rashes, says with the companies’ emissions and midnight, he says. A

implications. nearby and pursue higher studies N health department official, Nesa waste discharge. “The air smells so bad it’s hard E

In 2007, SIPCOT acquired 1500 there. E Murali. Two people have died of Another challenge is that many to sleep.” He says that the M acres of the village’s meikkal Dhanasekaran waits, with six : cancer so far. of the residents do not trust the companies’ effluents sometimes O porambokku (village grazing) land other Thervoy men along the side T While nobody has yet medical facilities at the health care make its way into the fields. O for the creation of a special of the well-paved road that H established a direct correlation center in Kannankottai. They prefer “We’ve all seen the black water in P economic zone (SEZ) in Thervoy. connects the industrial area and the between these companies and the to go to RSRM Hospital or Stanley the fields from one of the A tyre manufacturing company, village. diseases at Thervoy, a paper hospital in nearby Tondiarpet. factories,” he notes. was the first to set up its factory in “We wait here and supervise the published by the International Ilango, a 38-year-old contractor, The factory has promised to treat Thervoy. It began operations in construction work that’s going on,” A tough choice for villagers... jobs or pollution? Agency for Research on Cancer says his wife was diagnosed with its waste responsibly. However, 2013, according to Panchayat Head says Dhanasekaran. (IARC) established a strong stomach cancer. He claims he has during the rains, Ashok Kumar, a M Munivel. It remains the largest They all work on contract to the correlation between stomach and spent close to Rs. 22 lakhs on contractor, notes that the drainage unit in the industrial area, spanning various industries that will be manual labourers in the factories have on their health and on the bladder cancer and the rubber chemotherapy and his wife is cured overflows and it makes its way into over an area of over 250 acres. coming up in the SIPCOT while the women work in the environment. industry. now. the fields. Several other companies have industrial area. housekeeping sector. Dhanasekaran and his six friends A recent paper published by the “We were saved because we During the rains, he claims that been established in Thervoy since “We’ll have work till “We too need to go to work to pull up their sleeves to show black, Journal of Occupational Medicine diagnosed it before it went the drainage system leading to the then. A resin factory, a construction is done. Once, it’s make ends meet. Even if the work scaly patches on their arms. and Toxicology found that contact downhill,” he says. fields from the factory has foam. petrochemical factory, a glass over, we’ll have to search for a is demeaning, like cleaning toilets, “We have it all over our bodies. dermatitis, a skin ailment, is also Another contractor, Arun Kumar But for all the damage to the factory, a prawn feed factory are different project,” says Suresh, a we do it,” says 38-year-old It’s because of all the waste these common in rubber factories. lost his mother earlier this year to environment, all the diseases and among other companies in the contractor. Thilagavathy Mohan. companies emit,” says 35-year-old A US news source, stomach cancer. other discomforts, the villagers premises. Though the companies only She now works as an accountant contractor, Ashok Kumar. tuscaloonews.com, reported that in “There are many who are afraid know they need the companies Thervoy village, home to some provide temporary jobs, the at the local panchayat, after having Even the water has lost its taste, 2001, six workers filed a series of to speak up in the village. If people there. 1000 families, has all the hallmarks residents prefer this work to worked for 10 years at a bio- the residents say. suits against a tyre factory, know they had cancer, they would “There is damage to the of an idyllic rural setting. There are farming. Around 30 men from technology company. “Till 2000, Thervoy water tasted claiming that the chemicals used in be ostracised. We are all simple- environment, but the people can’t lush green fields. The lakes Thervoy work as contractors for Residents complain of the like bottled water, that’s how pure it the workplace made them develop minded people,” Ilango says. starve. We need the jobs these overflow from this year’s generous SIPCOT. Many others work as adverse impacts these companies was. Now, everything has changed. cancer. Before SIPCOT began companies give,” says Munivel. Setback to restoring village pond Ignored dump yard woes Brick kilns in Anaikatti destroying Vellakinar pond, economy TANISHQ VADDI Coimbatore weekly markets the Salim Ali Centre, “fourteen pond in full glory. Many believe HYDERABAD: It is not the S.N.THYAGARAJAN camped around the Vellakinar pond species of birds migrated to the that since they have found an smell of coffee brewing that the with their cattle. The pond was the pond during winter every year. alternative, the land can be used for residents of Jawaharnagar wake up COIMBATORE: Vellakinar centre of agricultural businesses, They stopped appearing after the other purposes. They fail to realise to ever morning. Instead, it is the pond, the overflowing waters of which disappeared when it started pond dried up,” says Arul. Thanks that the pond was the village’s the stench of the garbage piled which flooded the village in 1983, drying up. to the restoration work, “the pond main source of water.” A 92-year- outside their homes. Spread across has been dry for almost three Arul Krishnan, a representative filled with two feet of water for the old villager is miffed. “The pond an area of about 135 square metres, Q decades now. The Vellakinar of VWGPC, says: “Over 2,000 first time in many years and four was on a private land. The owner the landfill in Jawaharnagar affects I H village panchayat records testify to acres of land were once cultivated species of birds were spotted in donated it to the public. It was the the areas of Balaji Nagar, S N A the fact that the pond was live and in the village. The Vellakinar pond 2020,” he claims. people duty to maintain it … they Dammaiguda, Kapra, Yapral and T

I full of water once. When the was the only source of water. The With almost a generation have failed,” he says. Since the Sainikpur. The locals allege that the D D

Vellakinar Water and Greenery farm lands have now become passing since the pond went dry, it restoration work stopped in March dump yard is also polluting the A V Protection Committee (VWGPC) godowns or residential complexes. became a den for anti-social last year, residents have converted groundwater in the area. began restoring the pond in 2019, Only 800 acres of farm land are activities. The VWGPC’s first step the pond into a garbage dumping LakshmaReddy(50), an it discovered that the surface area ground. inhabitant of the area, says that the Lake polluted by the dump yard had shrunk from 6.75 acres to 4 Even though boards were put up municipality's water is sufficient acres. The committee wanted to advising people not to do so, they only for a couple of days. For the exposed to all sorts of health proximity of the dump yard to salvage what was left of the pond used the lockdown as an excuse to rest of the time, inhabitants are issues." residences have also lead to N

and continued work till March A dump garbage.The bore-well in the dependent on this polluted This year, a scientist from the inhabitants struggling with various J

2020, when the Covid lockdown A pond still remains the main source groundwater. "In monsoon, things Central Pollution Control Board health conditions. Bhupal Reddy R came into effect. A of water for many. The villagers get lot worse the smell becomes (CPCB) inspected the Jawahar (53), who has asthma, says G Y

The rainwater from the hills near A say that the water table has unbearable, and the water turns into Nagar dumpyard, says an Indian breathing is very difficult,all H T

Anaikatti was the main source of remained high in the pond because black," says Reddy who inhabits a Express report, dated November through the monsoons and at dawn, . N water for the pond in the village on . of the soil’s absorption capacity. government-subsidised apartment 18. The inspection was a response every day. Despite overhead tanks, Mettupalayam Road. The water S The VWGPC approached the less than 1 km away from the dump to a letter written by A Revanth the municipality hasn't given water reached the pond through the authorities in 2019, seeking a ban yard. These apartments were Reddy, the Malkajgiri MP and supply connection yet, he adds, and Rajavaikal canal. However, the on the brick kilns in Anaikatti, constructed under the Rajiv TPCC working president to Union his grandson--Jashwanth Reddy-- increasing number of brick kilns along the water path. The GruhaKalpa Scheme to provide Minister for Environment and had skin allergies due to near the Anaikatti hills obstructed authorities have said they will take housing facilities to economically- Forests, Prakash Javadekar. groundwater use for bathing. The the water over the years, resulting action. The VWGPC has spent weaker sections of the society at a According to the Indian Express, recent inauguration of Waste To in the drying up of Vellakinar. Rs.13 lakhs so far to restore the subsided price in urban areas. Reddy alleged that the leachate Energy(WTE) plant by K.T.Rama Agriculture, the main occupation land. The organisation got the Ironically, they were constructed from the dumpyard was causing Rao, the minister of municipal of the villagers, is fast Vellakinar pond now resembles a barren land. District Collector’s permission to well after the dump yard started groundwater pollution in a radius development and urban disappearing. carry on the restoration work. They operating. The dump yard has also of 5 km and pollution in 14 lakes development, has helped make Till about 30 years ago, traders left. I am sure they will disappear was to create awareness among the have now sought the help of private polluted a lake in the area, adds located in and around the area. things better. "But there still seems from Mettupalayam and sooner than we anticipate” villagers. Ramaswamy (62), a companies to build a walking and Reddy. "Children play cricket in However, nothing seems to have to be a lot that needs to be sorted Karamadai who came to the As per the records available in resident, recalls: “I have seen this cycling path around the pond. the evening near the lake they are come out of it yet. The close out,” says Bhupal Reddy. Rural kids miss the bus MONA PACHAKE A divided stance on coir and pith industries The villagers of Kallipatti Pudur have different opinions on groundwater contamination TIRUCHENDUR: “We have only one bus in the morning and S.N.THYAGARAJAN student, also has a tale to narrate. village work in the industry. Only

evening and if we miss that we E “I got fever and throat infection some people with ulterior motives K cannot go to school,” said Alwin A POLLACHI: The residents of last year. My parents thought I had are trying to make a big issue of it. H

Infanton (15) a boy from C Kallipatti Pudur village, 14 km COVID-19 but we later found out All government departments have A P

Periyathalai. This becomes a from here, have limited access to that it was because of the ground said that the coir industries do not A barrier to education of children clean water. The village, which is N water.” Raghunathan’s father, who cause pollution. If the industries N A J O

from coastal villages in Tuticorin home to about 800 people, A works for the Water Works close down, many villagers will M R

district. In the absence of regular The bus stop at Udangudi comprises mostly of coconut G Department, claims “the ground be out of jobs.” A transport, it is a struggle for farmers and workers. The Y water here is unfit for drinking. Thiruvengadam feels coconut H T children from Periyathalai, school”, said Jayaseelan Fernando residents depend on the water Being an employee of the farmers might have caused the . N Thisayanvilai, Kulasai, Udangudi (60), panchayat leader of from the four village wells for . government, I cannot say anything water pollution. “They use 9 kg of and Kootapanai to go to school. Periyathalai. farming and their daily use. S more.” chemical fertilizers per tree every Attendance in schools is poor. Lack of transport adds to the The ground water quality, Some residents feel that the rich year to increase their yields. These Students in classes above 10 mindset of people in these villages however, has decreased and the powerful are targeting the chemicals are absorbed by the travel about 60 km up and down that they cannot send their considerably over the last three village because they bypassed ground,” he explains. every day. daughters, after they attain puberty, years. The villagers allege that the them and went directly to the Many villagers suffer from “We are illiterate but we want alone anywhere, even to school. improper disposal of waste by coir authorities. A resident said: “There problems in the respiratory tract. our children at least to go to other “I got the first mark in my class and pith industries around the are more than 15 coir and pith But there is no conclusive places and educate themselves. But 10 but as there is no proper bus my village has caused water pollution. A coconut farmer points to the poor quality of water units around the village, and they evidence connecting the coir and this seems very difficult with poor parents did not allow me to study In December 2019, some residents are owned by people with political pith industries to them. The Tamil transport,” said Gilbert Fernando further,” said 17-year old mother petitioned the District Collector of affiliations. People across party Nadu Water and Drainage Board (58), whose daughter Shibani Lincy V Rayer, who got married at Coimbatore and the Ministry of says the decline in the water village, is mother of two school lines ignore our pleas on water, (TWAD) tested the water at Fernando (22) travels every day 16. Jal Shakti, seeking a solution. quality has affected him children. She says: “Even though which is why we were forced to Kallipatti village in November from Manapadu to Tiruchendur to Every time people complain The pollution has affected the financially. “The yield has come we have ample water in the well take matters into our hands.” 2019, and found that it was her college, a distance of 17.4 about lack of bus facility, parish rich and the poor of Kallipatti down by 50 per cent. The water throughout the year, we cannot Thiruvengadam, the village contaminated. kilometre. priests write to the Regional alike. While no one denies that the that I get now can at best be used use it for cooking. We depend on panchayat president, agrees that But the reason for the The head of every village has Transport Officer in Thoothukudi water is contaminated, the opinion to clean my cattle.” There are the water from the government the ground water is polluted. But contamination, in just one village, made a tempo van ready in case the but the situation on the ground has is divided on the cause of three coir and pith processing water connection.” But the water he denies that it is because of the is yet to be ascertained. There single bus does not arrive. not changed. “There is very little contamination. A 55-year-old units around his farm, which he supply from the government coir and pith industries around the have been no reports of water “People with money can drop population in those villages for us coconut farmer, who owns five feels may be causing the pollution. connection is “irregular,” she village. “The coir industry is non- contamination in the surrounding their children in their own vehicle to operate more buses there,” said acres of farm land and some cattle, Amsaveni, 40, a resident of the claims. Raghunathan, a school polluting, a lot of people from the villages. but many of us cannot send them to RTO Subramanian. Deprivation 2021 Page 16_Layout 1 12-01-2021 10:58 Page 1

THE LAST WORD JANUARY 15, 2021 16 Teachers turn vendors GARIMA SADHWANI Promoting education BAKHTIYAR NAGAR (UTTAR PRADESH) : Mohd. Raees bought a buffalo and chicks so that he could sell milk and eggs I

to earn a living during the N A

lockdown imposed due to Covid- W

‘‘I haad nom one too adnvise gme t ot corntiinube mya stuldie sc beyhond i11lthd starndaerd. nI want to H

19. However, since he had no D A S be that person to guide the tribal children,” says Vijayan experience in rearing them, the chicks got sick and died. He lost A M I

ADARSH B. PRADEEP the money. It is a service,” said Rs. 40000, all his life’s savings. R A G

Vijayan, whose contract as a Tribal Raees is the trustee and caretaker : O

WAYANAD: “Come out Promoter has been renewed every of the S.S. Shiksha Niketan, a T O

Subramani. Didn’t I inform you year from 1995. private school in this village in H yesterday itself? Haven’t you had Before becoming a Tribal Lucknow district. Into teaching for P

your breakfast yet? Put your P Promoter, he had worked as a daily the last 22 years, he said, “I had to E

textbooks, notebooks and pen in E wage labourer and a Forest Watcher switch fields because I couldn’t D

your bag. The teachers are A after his parents passed away. afford a meal. I haven’t been able R P waiting,” said 48-year-old Vijayan “When I came to Madhyappadi to pay the EMI for the two vans I B

N.B, waiting outside the 15-year- H in 1995, there was not even a single bought for my school.” S

old’s house. R child who went to school. Now, Since not everyone in the village Newfound company: Mohd. Raees, a private school tea - A

Vijayan, then briskly walks to D there are primary and high school had a smartphone or could afford

A cher, unpaid for months, has taken to cattle rearing the next house, 2 km away, in the students and even a guy studying at recharging the connection every Gajagadi tribal colony and calls out degree level,” he said. month, the school could not for Aparna, who is also a tenth Ratheesh M. R. (22), the sole conduct online classes. The net to pay the fees. Only if the degree, I am not supposed to be standard student. degree student from the settlement, result: the school, with nearly 400 government helps private schools, doing this.” In May, he put up a After the schools closed down Tribal Promoter Vijayan N.B. holding a meeting with the said that, “Initially, I used to bunk students, has neither charged any can we expect to get our salaries.” mango cart at Malihabad. After the due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Kattu Naickers my school classes. But, my parents fee since March, nor paid its Saeed Khan (27), who teaches mango season ended, he, with a high school teachers make a and Vijayan Chetan forced me to teachers, numbering 10, and other Hindi and Maths, had to start friend, started selling vegetables . weekly visit to the Madhyappadi to guide me back then. So, now I Vijayan reading out from his blue study. Now, I am grateful to them.” staff salaries. zardozi (embroidery) work in Saini said, “When the other Anganwadi near Thirunelly in have to be there for these children,” pocket diary that contains all the When not visiting the colonies, Masee Khan (50), who teaches November. But since the farmers’ labourers were getting Rs. 300 a Wayanad district to teach the Kattu said Vijayan, who belongs to details of the seven colonies of Vijayan is at the tribal office in Urdu at the school, has been protest began, that too has stopped day, I got Rs. 200 because the Naicker tribal children. Kakkeri colony, another tribal which he is the promoter. Kattikulam where he has to file all driving an auto since May and as the raw material has to come managers thought I wouldn’t work Before the teachers come to the settlement. The job of Tribal Promoter is not the reports regarding the tribes. earns Rs. 300 a week. Earlier, he from Punjab. “Earlier I would get properly as I wasn’t habituated to Anganwadi, Vijayan, the Tribal Right from registering the birth a permanent one and their contracts Other than these, he also has to would earn Rs. 2500 a month from Rs. 5000 from the school, and in it. When I went to the market to sell Promoter of Madhyappadi and of the child and obtaining its ID have to be renewed every year. attend the training hosted by the the school, and Rs. 4000 from this (zardozi) work, I earned Rs. vegetables, people wouldn’t buy Gajagadi colonies, bolts down just card to ensuring that the elderly get Despite the need for frequent travel Tribal Department, the police and giving tuitions. He said, “We have 400 after a whole month’s hard from me because I was new.” a cup of black tea and rushes to the their pensions, the Tribal Promoter to all the tribal settlements, they are the health officials. received free rations from the work,” he said. Mohd. Raees said, “The tribal settlements to force the acts as a bridge between the not given any travel allowance in “These people are at the lowest government. But what do we do Vinay Kumar Saini, another government schools have received reluctant children to attend the government and the tribals. addition to their gross salary of Rs rungs of the society. They have a with five kg of rice, if we cannot teacher, said “In April, I laboured a lot of help from the government. classes. “There are a total of 70 children 13,500 a month. lot of reluctance even when help is afford a gas connection to cook it?” at construction sites. But I had to The private schools need help too, “I stopped studying when I was in these two colonies. Thirty five “Many people ask me why I do offered,” he said as he started to “Even if the school reopens, I do it in secret because I was if not for our sake, at least for the in 11th standard. There was no one male and thirty five female,” said this for this paltry sum. It is not for walk quickly to the next colony. don’t think the parents will be able ashamed. I have an MA and a BEd students.” Struggle for survival Patients unaware of in Pochampally Delhi’s free bed scheme TANISHQ VADDI way out.” ANUSHKA JAIN the fear that he would have to bear a heavy The debt cycle, he adds, is a never- cost for it. Bhowmick had recently gotten him POCHAMPALLY : When Ivanka Trump ending one. For instance, he needed a loan NEW DELHI: Fifty year-old Anita Devi is a operated under the EWS scheme at a Punjabi visited Hyderabad in 2017, Telangana’s of Rs 3 lakhs the previous month to treat his cancer patient from Bihar. Running around Bagh-based private hospital. However, he is Chief Minister, K.Chandra Shekar Rao, father, who met with an accident. “We have trying to raise funds from her neighbours for afraid of going through the process for the gave her a bright red Pochampally Ikat, a an emergency; we take the loan and much of the lock - second time. He was weave distinct to the small town it is made increase our debts,” he adds. “Our children down, she mana - helped the first time in. However, this age-old tradition, like and grandchildren continue to repay it.” ged to collect Rs around by Delhi handloom all over the country, is at the risk Throw in the fact that they have had limited 60,000 to clear High Court’s EWS of going into a decline. access to education and “it is very difficult some of her of me - monitoring N The weavers of Pochampally sarees to do anything apart from this.” dical bills running I committee member A J traditionally belong to Padmshali caste, Balaya (47), who works alongside him, to over Rs 2 lakh. Advocate Ashok A

Padma meaning lotus and Sali meaning says that his constant interaction with Devi has been K Aggarwal. “They H R S

O weavers. Despite other weaving centres in people like Anjaneyalu makes him want receiving treatment would make us go U L N A

Chirala and Jentrpeta slowly closing down, something very different for his two at India’s premier A around to different F

: I T Pochampally managed to survive. The tide children. “I don’t want my children to suffer All India Institute O offices a lot. Get I T R seems to be changing as the weavers like him or me,” he says, adding that he of Medical O different papers, it K H S complain that the profession doesn’t give would prefer that his children studied and Sciences, after a P might take 2-3 N A

S them enough to run a family. Also, the went to the city to work. Bihar hospital months,” he fears. younger generation does not show enough However, educating them remains a referred her there. Gagan Bhartia, interest in it. concern. Though the government does offer With two children who works with Rajnikanth(22) comes from a weaving a scholarship to weavers’ children, the cost and a meagre Delhi-based Charity background, but he has no intention of of living remains a concern. salary of Rs 1500, Anita (right) fighting againt all oddds Beds which connects going down that path because the money “I am thinking of taking a loan from the she is now under patients with any Ashok Bhaat selling puppets on the street isn’t enough, he says. Instead, he is owner so that my son does not have to stop heavy debt. vacant EWS beds says, pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Hyderabad. his education,” he says. “Once he gets a “We don’t know about any free beds “The government never carried out any “I would like to join a job in Hyderabad good job, it will be easy to clear the debt.” schemes, you need connection and access for awareness drives or campaigns in slums or after completing my degree.” The recent pandemic has worsened their it,” says her brother Ranjan. villagers for this.” Puppet art dying a His concerns seem to be justified. already-dire situation. Fifty-three-year-old In 1973, the Delhi administration leased Lalit Bhatia, who works with Bhartia says, Anjaneyulu (29) who has been working on Laxman says that there has been no help subsidised land to private hospitals in “The rules keep changing very quickly so Mahateshwari Ikkat Sarees for 14 years from the government during these troubled exchange for reservation of beds for poor sometimes it may happen that a doctor doesn’t slow death agrees that the work pays very little. Also, it times. “A few NGOs come every ten days patients. In 2007 a committee headed by know about them.” of entertainment. "The art has is not a stable profession. “Nobody offers and distribute rice and clothes,” he says. Justice AS Qureshi noting non-compliance, “It is a long process, from admission to the SANSKRITI FALOR become a business now because the us a bride,” he says, adding that it is However, with many workers losing issued guidelines reserving 10 per cent in- end of the surgery so we stay with them all value that puppetry had earlier has challenging to sustain a family on their jobs or having to take a wage cut, things are patient and 25 per cent out-patient cases for throughout. Sometimes the helplines, also JAIPUR : "From performing been lost," says Vinod. current earnings. difficult. Many weavers have started EWS across all applicable hospitals in the city. don’t pick up their calls,” says Aggarwal, puppet shows in hotels and at Since the lockdown began, these However, he doesn’t seem to have any working in petty stores, a few have even However even after 50 years and 61 such “These people die and nobody cares.” events, we've come to streets after artists haven't had an income. They choice. His parents took money from the begun selling vegetables and fruits at hospitals dotting the city, there is a lack of “A lot of poor people do not go the this lockdown," says 30-year-old were forced to take loans to get by. owner of Mahateshwari Ikkat Sarees; he is roadside stalls, he says. clarity and awareness about the scheme hospitals because they can’t afford it. They Ashok Bhaat, selling puppets in the After the city started opening up, repaying the loan by working for the “The prices of sarees are increasing, the leading in part to cases like Anita’s and 30 to can’t even afford the conveyance and once street, hoping to earn some money. they were filled with hope but are business, he says. “No banks gives us any demand is increasing, but we are still 40 per cent of the beds remaining vacant. there, they will have to stand in lines for hours Katputhli Nagar, a small slum in still struggling to make ends meet. loan if we need money; these are the only struggling,” he says. “No one seems to care Ramani Bhowmick, in Noida, has been together and still not get anything at the end, Jaipur, is home to thousands of "We now roam around the streets to people who lend us money, so there is no about us.” delaying his father’s cancer treatment out of so they stay at home,” he says. these puppet artists. Most are sell these puppets, but there aren't struggling to make ends meet any buyers. Events were a source during the pandemic . of income, but due to this virus no A narrow pot holed lane, filled shows are taking place," says Anil. with garbage, leads to small houses The artists have no financial in Kathputli Nagar. In one small support and nowhere to showcase Future bleak for Kuthampully weavers room, four men of the Bhaat their talent. community, sit on a heap of wood "We just want to be recognised MANEESH T textile shop in the village, for which he he said. carvings and paint the puppets' for our art. We want a platform, a THRISSUR: Sundaran’s (54) hands works on a contract. R. Babu (48), Sundaran’s brother, faces. "I used to go to colleges and theatre or a space that we can call flit over the white threads in the loom. “They give me the threads and attai who weaves the ‘double mundu’, said institutes to train students, but after our workplace, where we can The room is filled with the clack-clack (design cards) and deduct its cost while “The Society gets us the paavu (bundle the virus struck I have done perform our shows on our sound of the loom. Outside, the street is paying me. The saree would be sold for of white cotton thread). It takes three nothing but sit here, carving demands,” says Ajay Bhaat. They filled by similar sounds other houses. Rs.5000 in their shops,” he added. days to finish weaving two ‘double smiling puppet faces with no one to are tired of fulfilling the demands Crafting the distinctive-looking With the Cooperative Society for the mundu’, for which they would give me T buy them," says Vinod Bhaat (32). of event managers and hotels, he Kerala sari fills Sundaran with pride. He weavers in the village having paid no Rs.500. I haven’t even got that for the H

The Bhaat community has been added. S is part of the 400-year-old history of the wages for the past 3 months, most of the past 3 months.” E

making and selling puppets and Making the puppets is a family E Devanga Chettiar, a weaving weavers depend on the private players Babu, who has been in the profession N performing for generations. "The business of the Bhaat community. A community in Kerala's Kuthampully now. for 35 years, said there was no future for M

3-hour-long puppet shows have While they make the wooden faces : village. The Devanga Chettiars were “There is no other option for my their legacy. O T

come down to 15 to 30 minutes and paint them, their wives make O first brought in from what is now- family of four to survive. Normally, we “Most of the children have started H

because people neither have time the stitch the clothes and the artists P Karnataka, by the erstwhile Maharaja of have contracts with both the Society and doing business and other jobs. Nobody nor interest in the art. It is only the also teach their children to perform Cochin, for their craft in handloom. the private shops. Now, the Society does wants to get paid like this. This will end foreigners who find it fascinating the art and make puppets. The community now holds a not want us to weave sarees.” with our generation,” Babu said. and after the pandemic there are no However, despite the difficulties, Geographical Indication (GI) tag for According to Saravanan A (53), the Saravanan said all the active weavers tourists," says Vinod. they do want to pass this legacy to their products. Even with this secretary of the Kuthampully in the village were above 40. “Only the "The daily wage workers also their children, says Vinod. reputation, they find it hard to survive Cooperative Society, there has been no ones who have been doing it for at least earn by working daily, where do "We send our children to school, because of a combination of technology, funding from the government since 15-20 years are in the profession now. the artists go?" adds Anil Bhaat, but we also teach them the art the pandemic and changing societal Onam season, to pay the wages of the Not the youngsters,” he said. sculpting a puppet's face. because if they don't continue the values. weavers. According to the NITI Aayog, The puppet artists have legacy, the art will die. They have “This saree takes 3 days to finish. I “The sales have been hit by the weaving is the biggest employer after transformed their shows to suit the to learn it and pass it onto their get Rs.1000 at the end of it, which pandemic. We were forced to advise the agriculture in the country. It provides new generation of audience, yet children, that is the only way this means Rs. 300 a day.” Sundaran said. weavers to stop weaving sarees and direct employment to 4.5 crore people they believe that their art has lost art would survive and grow in this The saree would be sold to a private limit them to ‘double mundu’ (dhoti),” and another 6 crore in allied sectors. its value because of the new forms world.”