Sunday, Nov 17, 2002
Sunday, Nov 17, 2002 |
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Kerala
By G. Prabhakaran
This is the first time a President is visiting this most backward area of the State. His meeting with some 2,000 school children of the area, mostly tribals, will be a lifetime experience for both. Spread over an area of 826 sq km, the Attappady hills is bigger than Alappuzha district. This most backward area remains an enigma to the outside world. It still conjures up an image of abject poverty, illiteracy and malnutrition due to ruthless social, economical, cultural and sexual exploitation of the tribes. As in tribal regions around the world, the breakdown of their traditional environment and relative isolation on account of development coupled with deprivation of their land have alienated the tribals from their natural surroundings. The tribals of Attappady have lost 14,000 acres and the 25,000-strong population hold just 2,000 acres of land with them. The alienation has driven them to the hills, barren and marginal lands, forcing them to join the ranks of the unemployed. The Attappady hills, a part of the Nilgiri biosphere reserve, is ecologically most valuable. It is inhabited by three tribal groups -- the Irulas, Muduga and the Kurimba - in 186 tribal settlements. The plight of the tribals by itself is proof that the welfare programmes carried out for them have not delivered good results. Various studies show that the development schemes have, in fact, made them destitute. A study conducted by P.R.G. Mathur, anthropologist, says that the three primitive tribal groups are ``forced to live in abject poverty with their primitive culture''. In Attappady, apart from poverty their womenfolk face exploitation of a different kind. Their hamlets have unwed mothers and there has been no action against the culprits. It is estimated that there are over 300 unwed mothers in the Attappady hills. The tribal heads of the hamlets have sought an audience with the President to request him to use his good offices to take steps to bring Attappady and some 700 other tribal settlements in the Nilgiri biosphere reserve, spread over Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, under the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution. There is also a demand to include the area in the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution to give self rule to the tribals like in the northeastern States. The advantage of a Scheduled Area is that such land cannot be transferred from tribals to outsiders. The tribals can preserve their culture and customs in the Scheduled Areas. The State Government can recommend to the Centre to notify particular tribal areas as Scheduled Areas. In fact, the State Government had suggested such a step for 1,064 sq miles with a tribal population of 1,12,000, which is 63 per cent of the total population, during 1960s. But this has not been done.
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