For more than three generations, about 250 families belonging to Kattunayakkan community living at Samudram on the outskirts of the city have been struggling in vain to persuade government officials to certify them as Scheduled Tribes.
Although their forefathers had migrated from Andhra Pradesh several decades back, there was no record or evidence to prove their claim. In the absence of the certification, the community youths could not avail the reservation in educational institutions and jobs.
Left with no alternative, most of these families had been pursuing their traditional vocation of hunting and soothsaying. Light is finally at the end of the tunnel for these families now. Revenue authorities have recently issued the community (ST) certificates to 50 members of these families.
The change of stance came about after an anthropological study was taken up by a committee and recommended the issue of the certificates.
The committee was sent in by the government after the families persisted with their efforts, representing their case to Chief Minister Jayalalithaa when she visited her erstwhile constituency, Srirangam, and to Ministers during their visits to the village during the recent by-election.
The families were overjoyed after the officials started issuing the community certificates to some of them over the past few days.
For someone who had faced the brunt of the problem, M.G.K.Venkatesan, now aged 38, it was a matter of sheer relief and hope. The door of opportunities, which was closed to him, is now open at least for his children.
After he finished his Plus Two in 1993, Venkatesan wanted to pursue a course in catering technology at the State Institute of Hotel Management at Thuvakudi in Tiruchi. But since he could not produce the community certificate, he could not avail the quota and free education.
“My family could not afford to spend about Rs.30,000 - 40,000 for the three year course then. Hence I had to drop the plan. I turned an astrologer after that and am pursuing the vocation till date,” he said.
