Around noon, 35-year-old Malati was trying to get her four-month-old daughter to sleep, while her sister, 27-year-old Jayanti was finishing the household chores.
The two sisters were waiting for their elder sister to come home, after voting at the nearby Valmiki Ashram School in Madya, under Mangaluru City North Assembly constituency, so that they could go and vote.
Ms. Malati and Ms. Jayanti from the native Koraga tribe were among the nearly 1,000 voters, a majority of them Koragas, at the polling booth No.6 in the Ashram School, which was adjoining the Koraga Colony.
The booth was among the 13 model polling stations in the Mangaluru City North Assembly constituency, which projected the theme of heritage of the Koragas.
Polling Station No. 6 at Valmiki Ashram School in Madya, near Surathkal, was among 13 model polling stations in Mangaluru City North Assembly constituency. This booth projected the heritage of the native Koraga tribe. | Photo Credit: Raghava M.
“We have a close relationship with the Ashram school,” said Ms. Jayanti, and added, “My late father Nagesh doubled up as the watchman and the cook of this school. My father ensured that all her three daughters studied well in this school,” she said.
Ms. Jayanti has studied till Class IX, while Ms. Malati studied till Class VIII.
Recalling her father, who passed away in September 2022, Ms. Jayanti said he moved around the district to bring children of the community to the school. “My mother grew vegetables in the backyard, which was used by my father to cook food.”
Mr. Nagesh developed a vegetable garden in the school, which continues to provide vegetables for children at the school.
Remembering the days they spent in the school, Ms. Jayanti and Ms. Malati said that one of their teachers was still in the school.
“My daughter and my sister’s elder daughter both go the school.”
It is for the sake of her daughter’s education that Ms. Jayanti recently moved in to her father’s house and is staying with Ms. Malati.
Unlike the earlier days when only Koraga children studied here, the Ashram school now is open to children from other Scheduled Tribes, Ms. Jayanti said.
Ms. Malati and Ms. Jayanti continue to earn their living by weaving “Tatte Kudupu”, a type of filter weaved using a plant, which is the skill they have inherited. “Not many among the tribe weave baskets now,” Ms. Malati said.
Before the poll, the office of the Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) took up a special drive to enrol all eligible voters from the Jenu Kuruba and Koraga communities, both of which are particulary vulnerable tribal groups (PVTGs) in the State.
The drive achieved 100% enrolment as per the final electoral rolls published on January 5.
