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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Malli's tragedy: On death, loss and failed govt schemes in Kerala's only tribal block -Shaju Philip

Malli's tragedy: On death, loss and failed govt schemes in Kerala's only tribal block -Shaju Philip

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published Published on Mar 4, 2018   modified Modified on Mar 4, 2018
-The Indian Express

With a string of malnutrition deaths and now a case of lynching, Attappadi has for long lived in Kerala’s shadows. Shaju Philip on why, despite government schemes and projects, little has changed in the state’s only tribal block.

C Valli slumps onto the floor of her unplastered house at Pazhayoor colony in Attappadi’s Chindakki village, clutching a plastic bag half filled with rice. “There’s not a grain at home. I went around a few homes collecting cups of rice. I have a jobless husband and my in-laws to feed,” says Valli, hurt and angry.

The 28-kg free rice that Valli, a Muduga tribal, gets every month from the PDS shop at Mukkali, a junction on the Palakkad-Attappadi road, ran out a few days ago.

Hundred metres away, Malli, 56, sits on a mat, surrounded by other tribal women. Outside the single-storey house, a canopy has been set up as a steady stream of visitors, among them politicians and bureaucrats, file in and out, some bending down to console Malli. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was among those who visited her.

On February 22, Malli’s mentally ill son Madhu had been lynched to death by a mob which suspected him of stealing rice and curry powder from shops at Mukkali. Under the harsh lights of TV cameras, Malli tells the story of her loss, one other time.

“Madhu dropped out of school in Class 7 after his father Mallan’s death. He went to Palakkad to learn carpentry. It’s there that he developed mental problems,’’ says the Kurumba tribal woman.

For the last nine years, Madhu had been living in a cave in the nearby forest, occasionally straying into the hamlet in search of rice. “He never stole any money from shops, only a few fistfuls of rice. And they killed him for that,” says Malli, staring hard at the mat on which she sits.

The politicians leave, promising, among other things, a tarred road to the village. So far, the state government has announced a compensation of Rs 14 lakh, with Rs 10 lakh credited into Malli’s bank account, and a police constable’s job to Madhu’s sister Chandrika, who now works as an anganwadi worker. Malli’s younger daughter, Sarasu, is a daily wager.

Valli’s predicament and Malli’s tragedy are what make Attappadi, in Kerala’s Palakkad district, an unhappy outlier in the state’s famed story of inclusive development.

Attappadi, with 192 hamlets that fall under six revenue villages, lies on the state’s eastern border with Tamil Nadu. It’s Kerala’s only tribal block, with 44 per cent of the population belonging to Irula, Muduga and Kurumba tribes. In a state that flaunts its social and development report card, Attappadi is Kerala’s darkest corner.

Attappadi had hit headlines in 2013 when the region reported a series of infant deaths, allegedly due to malnutrition and related complications. According to data from Kerala’s Integrated Tribal Development Project (ITDP), 33 infants died that year, most of them born premature and with low birth weights — between 550 gm and 1.5 kg.

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The Indian Express, 4 March, 2018, http://indianexpress.com/article/india/kerala-tribal-beaten-to-death-lynching-mallis-tragedy-malnutrition-5085185/


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