They live in rickety structures held together by sticks and plastic and often return after a day’s work to a ‘home’ raided by wild boars. For the 27 Kani families living at Muthalathode, near the forest area of Achencoil, it is a life devoid of any hope.
Despite a string of schemes to ensure tribal welfare, they lack basic facilities and live in deplorable conditions, reveal a survey conducted by the KILA Centre for Socio-Economic Development (Extension Training Centre).
Malnutrition
“We found a newborn and a mother living in one shack. The baby weighed 1.5 kg when born and the mother was also underweight. Malnutrition is a major issue they face and the mother started working seven days after the C-section,” said Deepa P.S, one of the village extension officers who participated in the survey.
While authorities claim that the families were given land at Piravanthur grama panchayat, the residents deny that adding they cannot survive in unfamiliar surroundings.
All the families depend on the forest for their livelihood while staying at these makeshift shelters with no infrastructure and toilet facilities.
“Lack of hygiene often leads to health issues and from what we observed women and children are suffering from lack of nutrition. They have no awareness of modern medicine and though they have access to medical help, they hardly care to make the diagnosis at the right time. Also, they are not very keen on educating their children,” says KILA CSED (ETC) principal G.Krishnakumar
The KILA team also covered various tribal hamlets at Kuriottumala, Mullumala, and Kadamankodu, using a specially a prepared questionnaire to collect details through the door-to-door survey.
“There are many projects under LSGIs and also Tribal Sub-Plan (TSP) projects of State and Central governments. But none has reached these real beneficiaries. The residents have all kinds of ID cards, including Antyodaya Anna Yojana ration card, and some have heard about various tribal schemes. But they have no idea how to get the benefits,” he adds.
According to the survey report, many families are still poverty-stricken and left with no options other than their regular forest visits to collect produce.
Meagre earnings
Often they camp inside the forest for weeks and their earnings are too small even to meet their basic needs.
“We also came to know that most of them do not have Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme job cards though they had applied for it. It shows that various local bodies and tribal development officers are not properly monitoring the community members,” he says.
Published - March 06, 2019 10:48 pm IST
