If anyone is yet to be convinced about the reasons behind the continuing ‘Nilpu Samaram’ in front of the Secretariat, a visit to the Vedar tribal colony in Nedumam near Kovalam is enough to put all doubts to rest.
Here, in barely about 10 cents of land, 15 Vedar families live in conditions that put a blot on all social welfare schemes initiated in the State, more so in its capital. Their houses, beaten together into shape with thatched palm leaf strips, crumbling laterite stone blocks and tattered sheets of tarpaulin, have a living room, dining hall, bedroom and kitchen — just that it is one room that serves all these functionalities.
No burial spaceIt is not recurring bouts of diseases, unhygienic surroundings or poverty that these families fear most. That would be death, and the fear is not because they have a zest for life. It is just that they don’t have any space for the dead. The tiny front yards and backyards have been where they bury their dead. And in one house, a youngster had to be buried inside the house since there was no other place, they say.
Only a few of the families can boast a breadwinner, and even those are temporary because of the lack of certificates or documentation proving their tribal status. Some men do part-time jobs while some women manage to earn a meagre livelihood from nearby fish processing units.
“The Vedar community, despite decade-long struggles, is not yet included on the Scheduled Tribes list and so we never get any benefits that are extended to STs,” they say.
“Though there was a move to build a flat complex for the community, it was dropped when the families pointed out that they deserved land of their own.
And they continue to live in the ramshackle huts, often losing sleep thinking when another disease outbreak might force them to dig a grave inside that single room.
