Owing to the lack of motorable road, a 27-year-old woman in her last stage of pregnancy had to be carried on a makeshift stretcher for 7.221 km from her remote Kurumba tribal hamlet at Idavani in Eastern Attappady on Tuesday morning for medical care.
In the tedious trek, her relatives had to cross the Varagar, the mighty tributary of the Bhavani river, which was in spate following incessant rain. The State Women’s Commission has sought a report from the District Collector on the incident.
Screaming in acute pain, Mani was first taken to Arulikonam Junction where the staff of the government primary health centre at Pudur had promised to send an ambulance.
The woman and her relatives waited for about three hours in vain and then continued their journey to the Government Tribal Speciality Hospital at Kottathara by a jeep hired by officials of the National Rural Livelihood Mission. Within ten minutes after being admitted to the hospital, the woman gave birth to a baby girl.
The incident triggered a hot debates on Wednesday after residents of the settlement released images of their ordeal.
According to health officials, the ambulance could not reach the hamlet because of the poor condition of the forest road and the increasing water level in the Varagar.
A dispute between the Health Department and the grama panchayat over payment of vehicle insurance had also contributed to the situation.
Encircled by dense forests and cut off from the rest of the world by the Varagar, Idavani is the remotest among the 183 tribal settlements of Attappady.
“Residents make bamboo hammocks to take the sick to Pudur, traversing treacherous foothills. Idavani is one of the 19 hamlets of the Kurumbas where even electricity continues to be a mirage,” says Mani’s husband Panali, a daily-wage labourer.
“I was wreathing in pain during the entire journey and the long wait for the ambulance. There would have been a lot of complications if I were delivered of the baby on the road. It was providential escape,” Mani said.
Doctors said the condition of the woman and child is stable. Incidentally, the road to Idavani secured official clearance under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) about six months ago.
But the work still remains on paper because of the lack of mandatory clearance from the Forest Department and the Integrated Tribal Development Project.
A sum of ₹9.87 crore had been sanctioned under the scheme for the forest road with a length of 7.221 km at the intervention of Palakkad’s Lok Sabha member M.B. Rajesh. The road works are still remaining in paper because of the lack of mandatory clearance from Forest Department and Integrated Tribal Development Project (ITDP).
In general, the Kurumbas are on the decline in Attappady. Among the 1,740 tribal families in Pudur panchayat, only 553 are Kurumbas, with 1,090 men and 992 women. Agali panchayat has no Kurumbas while Sholayur has only 13 Kurumba men and 11 women.
