It is about one and a half months since twenty people from Tamil Nadu, including 12 from Tiruvannamalai district, were killed in Seshachalam forests by the Red Sanders Anti Smuggling Task Force (RSASTF), allegedly when they were cutting red sander trees on April 7.
Though he Tamil Nadu government parties like DMK, DMDK, TMC and MDMK gave solatium to the families, there is a yawning gap between the needs of the families and what they got as relief.
In Tiruvannamalai district, 11 of the 12 victims who lost their lives were main breadwinners. Their impoverished widows and parents are finding it difficult to make their ends meet. With the money they got as compensation, they conducted the funeral and related rituals and are left with very little. They are badly in need of employment.
The humble brick and mud house of Mahendran, only graduate among the victims, located near their small piece of land in Murugapadi village was built by his ancestor. When Mahendran started earning, the family was hopeful of better days. “His elder brother does not earn much. We were all relying on Mahendran. As he has gone, I have started tilling land myself again,” said his father Sivaji. When this correspondent went to his place, the 60-year-old man was tilling the land.
Munusamy’s family in Murugapadi kollakottai is equally in dire straits. The family members are living in a shed which has a roof made of palm leaves adjacent to a piece of land. His wife Thanjiyammal and mother Padma look frail. They have no men left in the family and the women have to take care of two toddlers Munusamy left behind.
“I have repaid around Rs.1 lakh in debt, met the family expenditure and paid for the rituals from the solatium money. I have no idea how I am going to manage in future. As a woman I cannot go to work at least for six months, I cannot rely on wage labour. “A job in a noon meal centre or anything like that can save me,” his wife said.
Muniyammal, wife of Sasikumar, a painter belonging to Vettagiripalayam, faces a similar problem. She has a house, but was completely dependent on her husband’s income.
