“Collecting data on the pregnant women is part of our work. On getting information, the junior nurse and I would go to the place and collect the data. We would render them whatever help we could. This is how I got the news that Mutha, a tribal woman, had an unwanted pregnancy. When we visited her and asked her some questions she retorted: “Who has given you this information? Have you no other work?” Since the woman did not confirm, we could not include her name in the register.
“But through the neighbors we used to get all the news about Mutha. On the day Mutha delivered, I and the nurse went to her house, but we could not see the baby. Many knew what had happened to the baby. Out of fear they did not reveal anything. We searched everywhere, but found no trace. We were told that the delivery took place at night and that soon after delivery the baby was strangled to death, kept in a gunny bag near the fireplace till noon and later dumped into the Kalindi river at Tirunelli.”
Lakshmikutty, renowned social worker and Anganwadi teacher, was narrating the details of the shocking infanticides she had come across.
“ Kali of Tirunelli, became pregnant in the ginger plantation in Coorg. Since she wore the night gown during work no one could make out that she was pregnant. To hide the fact of pregnancy from her co-workers, she continued to work like everyone else. She was in the last days of pregnancy when she returned to the work place after a visit home. She traveled all the way to Coorg all the time standing in the bus. She experienced intense abdominal pain. Still, out of the fear of ridicule, she bravely bore it. After reaching Coorg she continued to work like the others till the pains became unbearably intense. Finally she delivered on the banks of the river. Soon after delivery she strangled the baby. Thinking that the baby was dead, she kept it in a plastic bag on the river bank. Before long the co-workers found the baby, which was still breathing. But by that time the crabs had eaten up its limbs, including the lips and cheeks.”
This is not an isolated incident in Tirunelli, through which flows river Papanasini (eradicator of sins), known as the Ganga of the south, which the Hindus believe will wash away all your sins. Lakshmikutty has narrated a number of shocking stories of infanticide. Investigations have revealed that as many as seven infanticides have taken place in the first ward of Tirunelli Panchayat alone.
Apparently, the tribal unwed mothers started killing their new born babes only from 1998. The innocent, illiterate and helpless daughters of the jungle are driven to commit this horrific crime by the threat of the culprits who fear that through the D.N.A. test they might be identified. The impact of infanticide upsets the natural rhythm of their life and weighs them down with guilt.
The local people allege that the reluctance of authorities to take action against the culprits, despite clear evidence, is emboldening the perpetrators of such crimes.
Panchayat of the Unwed Mothers
The total population of Tirunelli Panchayat is 27,450. Of this, 11,178 are tribals. Women constitute just below half of this. The number of fertile women in the Panchayat might be below 4000. According to government statistics, of this 214 are unwed mothers. The figure given by unofficial sources is 500. Accurate information is not available on the number of those subjected to rape. But the number of such women should be more than the number of unwed mothers.
In 1997, when the Legislative Committee conducted a survey of the unwed mothers, 102 cases were reported from this Panchayat. The figure for the entire district was 400. But the latest study by the National Committee of the All India Surveillance of Tribal People for Social Justice has identified more than 3000 such cases. The Panchayat of Tirunelli has the highest density of unwed mothers in the district.
Most of the cases of unwed motherhood are found in the tribal communities of Adiyar, Paniyar, Kurichyar and Kattunaikkas. Of these, the Adiyas account for the majority of cases. In the first ward of Tirunelli Panchayat there are more than 70 cases. Not only these women, but also the children they give birth to have to bear the stigma of having no father.
The presence of more than 70 unwed mothers in just one ward of a Panchayat implies that the tribals are losing their genetic identity. In a sense this is tantamount to ethnic cleansing. Until the 1975 Act of abolition of bonded labor, the tribal women were subject to unquestioned sexual plunder by any landlord. It was their fate to satisfy the sexual needs of the men in the upper class families and give birth to their babies. The un-touchability code was thrown overboard in this unholy union of the slave and the feudal lord! K.J.Baby in his ‘Maveli Manram’ speaks about the cruel irony of the land lord who has to enforce slave work on his child.
The Respected Culprits
Lakshmi, an unwed mother in Tirunelli, has five children. Each child has a different father! All the culprits are respected gentlemen. Mara, another woman from the same place, has three children. The fathers are local gentlemen. There are several unwed mothers with more than one child. No tribal man is involved in these cases. All the culprits are from other communities belonging to different religions and political parties.
Using money and political clout the culprits get off even in registered cases. The tribal development activist of Panavally narrated a case of a guilty man trapping a complainant by impregnating her again while the case was going on and using that as evidence to argue in the court that she was a loose woman. Thus, he got off the hook. The accused used the ruse of pretended love and promise to marry.
There are cases of the same person being involved in different crimes of this sort in the same colony. More than one unwed mother are found in several tribal colonies. For instance, there are 30 cases in the Aravanazhi colony in Tirunelli Panchayat, 9 in the Mullankolly colony of Trissleri Pancahayat, 8 in the Sravani colony of Panvally Panchayat, 11 in Gundikaparambil, and 7 in the Karimam colony of Panamkutty Panchayat.
In the reported cases, the accused include police officers, government employees, those who came for constructing roads and bridges, those involved in building houses in the colonies, and those who migrated in search of work. In four of the reported cases police personnel were the culprits. Of these two have married the wronged women and are living happily as husband and wife. The local social activists say that many more such marriages are possible if there is strong protest and social pressure. There are the ‘good’ fathers who secretly provide for the upbringing of their children. These respectable gentlemen have their wives and children elsewhere.
Lakshmikutty says that after the Legislative Committee conducted an investigation and identified the culprits in 1997, there was a decrease in cases. The causative factor was the fear of social stigma once identified through the D.N.A test. But, according to statistics, after 1997 the number of unwed mothers has almost doubled in the Panchayat.
It is a public secret that, in order to escape from the ordeal of the D.N.A. test, the culprits threaten the women to undergo abortion or if that is not possible kill the baby as soon as it is delivered.
There are cases of women who are admitted in hospitals due to serious complications arising out of the use of primitive abortion methods and of deaths in extreme cases. A variety of methods are used, including the use of poisonous plants and administering powdered glass mixed with sodium bi-carbonate.
Ginger Plantations of Coorg and the Resorts in Wayanad
The Pancahayat of Tirunelli is near the Coorg district in Karnataka. Hence Tirunelli supplies the largest number of workers for ginger farming in Coorg. It is common to lure male workers by giving them cheap country liquor and extract hard work from them as well as sexually exploit the female workers. Investigations have revealed that large number of tribal women have become victims of unwanted pregnancy, thanks to this kind of exploitation.
The work environment in Coorg is far from safe for women. It is not uncommon for both men and women to be put up in surroundings where they can develop clandestine relationships. The accused in several cases are the contractors, who take the workers to Coorg and their helpers.
Those who returned from the ginger plantations in Coorg say that the reason for the death of tribal young women in suspicious circumstances is the nefarious strategies of the contractors to hide the unwanted pregnancies. These respected gentlemen, with wife and children in their native places, engage in such cruel acts in a bid to escape from the shame they may have to face if the pregnancy is known to the outside world.
Some of the newly started resorts in Tirunelli Panchayat are the new pastures of sexual exploitation. One of the resorts is owned by a chief reporter of a leading Malayalam daily. The ‘suicide’ of a tribal girl who was working in this resort had created quite an uproar. The suspicion is growing that many of the resorts are camouflages for sex tourism. It is pointed out that in Tirunelli alone there are 7 agents for recruiting tribal girls for prostitution. Lakshnikutty mentioned that on knowing that people from other districts frequent tribal areas in Tirunelli believing that prostitution is practiced in the colonies, she has alerted the authorities, giving the details of the vehicles they came in.
What is the Solution?
The tribal women become victims of sexual assault because of their situation of extreme poverty, illiteracy, unemployment etc. In some cases, at least, the trap consisted in pretended love and promised marriage. There are in this Panchayat a large number of women who were impregnated by landlords in the farms and in houses where they were employed as maids. Apparently, there are agents who traffick tribal girls to other districts and states by giving alluring promises and liquor to their parents. A large percentage of girls thus recruited are made victims of sexual exploitation.
The government should give priority to the rehabilitation of the mothers and their children by giving them work. Also serious efforts should be initiated through the tribal department for the education and health care of the children. House and land should be given to all the landless and homeless mothers. Other remedial measures include: conducting the D.NA. test to identify the culprits and awarding them exemplary punishment. It should be made mandatory that all those who take workers to Coorg should report to the nearby police station giving details of the workers, the work place and accommodation and food arrangements and facilities. The wage structure in Coorg should be made uniform and it should be ensured that the minimum wages are regularly paid. The offenders should be prosecuted. Also the government should come forward to conduct a study about the resorts in Tirunelli and ensure that sex tourism is not practiced in these resorts.
Another urgent need is to crush the spurious liquor lobby in Tirunelli. Additionally, constitution of a district level committee with the District Collector as chairman and the Block Panchayat Presidents, District S.P. voluntary activists, Tribal Development Officer as members, to study the issues faced by the unwed mothers and solve their problems and provide them economic assistance in a time-bound manner will go along way in addressing the problems faced by these stranded helpless women.
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