UNMARRIED MOTHERS OF THIRUNELLY

Social worker and anganwady teacher Lashmikutty of thirunelly described the infanticide she had witnessed in the following words:
It is the duty of our department to collect information about pregnant woman. When we get clue we would go and collect the information and render the required assistance. That is how I got the information that Mutha, an unmarried tribal woman,had become pregnant. When I, along with the junior nurse went to meet her, she was not ready to acknoledge her illicit pregnancy. Since she was so stubborn we could not include her name in the register.

But we used to get her news through neighbors. When we searched for her baby on the day she delivered it was no where to be found. Many in her neighborhood knew what she had done with her baby ,but nobody dared to reveal anything. We could not find any trace of the
baby. Later we came to know that shed suffocated her baby to death soon after the delivery, tied it in a sack and flowed in the river kalindi on the following day.
Kali of thirunelly became pregnant while working in a ginger field, in kudak(karnataka district).Since she used to wear loose gown many did not find out that she was pregnant.She worked as hard as all others to keep the matter a secret. Once when she returned home she was in her advanced stage of pregnany. On her return journey shedid not get even a seat in the bus. She had become pale and wasexhausted. still she kept it a secret to save her honour.
she toiled in the fields till the labour pain started. At last she gave birth on a riverside. She suffocatted it soon after. She put the baby in a plastic cover and hid it on the banks of the river under the impression that the baby and it was still breathing. But its lips and cheeks had been eaten away by the crabs.

River kalindi flows through thirunelly. It is a river Hindus consider sacred because a dip in its waters would absolve their sins. But in thirunelly,through which such a sacred river flows, these are not stray incidents. Lakshmikutty teacher has to reveal still many more such instances of cruel infanticide. With in last few years there have been reports of more than ten cases in the ward number one of thirunelly panchayath.
Unmarried mothers started the practice of infanticide in 1998. They commit such heinous crime because of the threat from the people who are responsible for these pregnancies and afraid on DNA tests. But such cruel deeds unsettle the lives of innocent and helpless daughters of the forest and they burn their rest of life in guilt feeling. locals complaint about the lack of effective and stern action from the government side against the guilty. According to them such callousness from the government's side empower those culprits.

A panchayath of Spinster Mothers

Total population of thirunelly panchayath is about 27450. Out of this 11178 are tribals. Number of woman would be half of it. Fertile women among them may be below four thousand , if we exclude children and the old .According to the official estimate, two hundred and fourteen are unmarried mothers there.Unofficial estimate would cross five hundred. Number of women cruelly raped is not available. In allpossibility ,their number would be double the number unmarried mothers.
When the legislative committee made an enquiry into the issue of unmarried mothers in 1997, hunderd and two cases were reported from this panchayath. In wayanad district it was four hundred. But a recent study conducted by 'All india surfision of tribal People for social justice National committee' found out that there are more than three thousand unmarried mothers in wayanad district. And highest percetage of such cases was found in thirunelly panchayath.
spinster mothers are found mainly among the tribal group like Adiyar,paniyas ,
kurchyar,kattunaika ,etc. Out of these groups mothers with their 'fatherless' children are found mainly among Adiyans. In the ward number one of thirunelly panchayath has more than seventy such cases.Such mothers and their bustard children are a question mark before the society .
When in a single ward alone there are above seventy such cases one cannot overlook the a tribal society itself is getting adulterated . In one sense it is equal to racial extermination. Before the Act of 1975, which banned slavery, it was a society, which could be sexually exploited by any landlords. Women of this society were condemned to bear the children of their landlords and give them birth in the tribal huts. Heavenly moments of unison of the land lords and slaves forgetting all untouchability. KJ Baby speaks of landlords, who knew that their children were growing in the tribal huts, but still considered them slaves , in his book' Maveli mantram'


CULPRITS, STILL GENTLEMEN.

Lakshmi, an unmarried mother of thirunelly has five children. Each child is by a diferent father. Culprits are the so-called genlemen of the society. Mara , another tribal woman of the same locality has three such children. All culprits are locals. Number of woman who have more than one fatherless child, is horrifying . In any of such cases tribal men are not resposible. Culprits all belong to different political-religious section of the society.
Social workers of this panchayath speak of instances where the culprits have escaped with help of money and power . In one such case the culprit escaped by making the victim pregnant again and there by proving that the woman lived an immoral life. He had tempted the woman with the promise of marriage.
there are cases in this panchayath where a single culprit is responsible for many unfathered babies. Unmarried mothers can be seen in almost every tribal colony of this panchayath:Aravanazhi-30,ullankolly-9,Sarvani-8 gundikaparamb-11,panankuttikariman-7, and the list goes on.
In the reported cases accused have been either policemen or government officials or workers reached here in search of work. in four reported cases policemen are the culprits. out of these two policemen married the victims and lead peaceful lives. If there is adequate pressure from the side of the authority may such marriages are possible. many culprits help their babies and their mothers occasionally. Allof them have their own wives and children elsewhere.
According to Lakshmikutty, yhe involvement of locals in such cases has reduced a lot after the enquiry by the legislative committee in 1997. Four were testified through DNAtests after that .But actual study reveals that the number of unmarried mothers has not reduced after 1997, but in fact, increased a lot.
The fact, that many culprits compel the women to abort or to kill the baby soon after the childbirth, inorder toescape from DNA tests,is not a secret anymore.
There are cases where women have been admitted in the hospital in very critical condition or died due to the practice of primitive abortion methods.

GINGER FIELDS OF KUDAK AND MULTIPLYING RESORTS

thirunelly panchayath lies close to kudak district of karnataka. therefore many people from here goto work in the ginger fields of kudak. Tribal men are intoxicated and made to work hard here. Women are sexuallyexploited. Surveys reveal that many such women get pregnant. Most of the workplaces are not safe here. Both men and women are made to stay in the same buildings. The land owners and co-workers are responsible in most of the cases.

There are incidents of mysterious deaths of some tribal women. They must have been killed in order to cover up the unwanted pregnancies. They are killed to save the honour of the so-called gentlemen who are responsible for those pregnancies.

Some of the new resorts constructed in the last couple of years in thirunelly panchayath are the new pastures of seual exploitation. The chief reporter of the famous malayalam newspaper owens a resort here .The' suicide' of a woman worker in this resort had created a lot of sensation. Sex tourism is suspected to flourish under disguise of these resorts.In thirunelly panchayath alone there are seven pimps who arrange women for prostitution.
many people from other districts visit here under the impression that prostitution is prevalent in these tribal colonies. Lakshmikutty teacher her self has reported such cases to the authorities even with the registration of number of vehicles they travels.


WHAT IS THE SOLUTION?


Those who exploit the basic problems like poverty, unemployment, illiteracy,etc. of these people sexually harass tribal women.In some cases they have been tempted with promise of marriage. There are many women in this panchayath who have become pregnant from the landlords under whom they work. There are also some agents who traffic the women to other districts and even states by cheating the parents. Most of these women are sexually exploited.
Government has to rehabilitate these unmarried mothers and their children and provide them with with employment . Tribal departments have to take care of the matters like education, health ,etc. of these children . Government has to provide land for all such mothers,conduct DNAtest and find out the culprits, make the labour agents to report at the nearest police station about the number of workers taken to kudak , standardize the wages and make sure whether the workers get it in time and voilate the labour laws. Measures have to be taken to make sure that sex tourism does not flourish in the resorts of thirunelli.
Another important nesessity is to control the illicit liquor lobby of thirunelly panchayath. Coordinated effort and time bound action by a committee comprising of district collector,block panchayath president, district superintend of police, social publisheactivists, tribal department officers, etc. are necessaryto provide some relief of these unmarried mothers.

thejas daily -weekend(azchavattam)2006 october 8