New Adi Dravidar hostel built, but students still live in squalor

Bureaucratic delay has forced them to stay in unhygienic conditions

August 20, 2019 04:34 am | Updated 04:38 am IST - MADURAI

The dilapidated Adi Dravidar hostel in Paravai where  42 girls are staying.

The dilapidated Adi Dravidar hostel in Paravai where 42 girls are staying.

Although it has been a month since a new Adi Dravidar girls hostel has been built in Valar Nagar, due to bureaucratic delays the girls have been unable to move into it. The girls still reside in a badly-maintained hostel at Paravai.

A senior official from the Adi Dravidar Welfare Department says that the Tamil Nadu Adi Dravidar Housing and Development Corporation Limited (TAHDCO) which has built new hostel worth ₹1.14 crore is yet to be handed over to the department.

The present hostel with a strength of 42 students, has only two small rooms, a storeroom and a single bathroom adjoining a kitchen area. The pathway that leads to the hostel is devoid of smooth topping and is littered with garbage.

For 10 years now, a worker who does not wish to be named, says that students from classes 4 to 12 from across Madurai have lived in the hostel to go to nearby Government-run middle schools and high schools. “The house is cramped when all students are present but they usually go back to their houses as they live nearby. They just study and eat dinner here. About 20 students stay and study here,” says the worker.

When The Hindu visited the hostel on Sunday, the worker said that all the inmates had left for their homes and added that they (the workers) would not permit any interaction with the students on other days as well.

The hostel is dingy and cramped and can host a maximum of 10 fully grown women. The worker states that although there are two toilets, only one is functional and is used by all students. The ‘kitchen’ is located in the same area as the bathroom. The large cooking stove lines the bathroom door- both a health and a safety hazard. Cleaning of utensils too takes place here only, the worker says.

Although the infrastructure is deplorable, another worker adds that ration supplies arrive on time and that there is enough water for bathing. In the small storeroom bags and boxes are kept. There is barely any space for proper dumping of garbage in the hostel as well. S. Rajeswari, who lives nearby, says that this is probably because the area has several members from the Scheduled Caste community.

“We know that the new building has been constructed but wonder why we have not moved yet. I have already spoken thrice to superiors at the Adi Dravidar Welfare department but there has not been any response yet,” the worker said.

“If they are projects above ₹50,000, the Chief Minister usually inaugurates it along with several other projects in the State. That date is yet to be fixed,” a THADCO official said. Member, Madurai district Vigilance and Monitoring Committee for Scheduled Castes Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, B. Pandiaraja, says that students should be moved at the earliest since the new building has already been built.

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