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photographs taken by Venkat during his visit
I left home at Thiruvanmayur around 5.00 AM on Aug 22nd. My brother dropped me at the closest bus stop. I took 2 busses to reach Central station, Madras. Took the train to Thiruvallur and an auto to arrive at Siddamma’s home at around 8.30 AM. It was a pretty decent house and I was welcomed by Siddamma. After the initial enquiries, here is a gist of our conversation:
Venkat: Where is the Irula project bank account and is wire transfer possible?
Siddamma: The Irula project account is at the Thiruvallur Indian Bank. Wire transfer is not only possible, but desirable since saves us some leg work.
Venkat: You mentioned that Irulas borrow money from the Landlords at extortionist interest rates. Is there any initiative to educate adult Irulas some basic numeracy so that they can escape from this?
Siddamma: There are govt. sanctions to the tune of Rs. 7 crores for adult literacy called "arivoli iyakkam", but it is not implemented. Most of the money is unused. Besides, it is easier to educate children than entrenched adults who are busy just to make ends meet. SVC does teach the irulas some basic things like keeping a diary of financial transactions.
(BTW, every family can work only for about 6 months of the year. To survive for the rest of the year, they have to take cash advances from the landlords at a very high interest rate. This is how they become "bonded" laborers).
Venkat: What is the aim of educating the Irula children. How do you see it helping them?
Siddamma: I am realistic in my goals and expectations here. The aim of educating the Irula children is not for gainful employment. That is still farfetched. The main aim of educating the children is to give them immunity from bonded labor and give them the knowledge of their basic rights.
Venkat: Do the Irulas have any land for agriculture?
Siddamma: In most villages, no. All the land around Irula settlements are owned by the landlords.
Venkat: What about some small scale jobs/industries for Irulas to improve their economic lot?
Siddamma: Some ideas like tailoring, mat making were thought about, but were impractical. These skills are not Irula core competencies.
Nirmala: Also, the tailoring businesses outside of the cities are not doing well and in fact are closing down.
Siddamma: And mat making is now suffering from a dearth of raw material. Besides, Irulas themselves have their own interests. They are good at honey collecting, batik etc…
They like manual labor (not a desk job) and it is they who have to decide what to do, not us. We can only help. I think villages should evolve like Gandhigram. There is no more bonded labor there, Irulas have land and a water well too.
In my opinion, land and agriculture are their best bet for economic development. They are good at organic farming and animal husbandry.
Venkat: How are govt. schemes working in the villages?
Siddamma: Govt. schemes are largely controlled by the landlords (since they have the money and hence the votes). So, road, water and electricity are first given to the landlord portion of the village. Usually one can see a three stage village, the landlord portion, the SC portion and the Irula portion.
Venkat: How are the SCs doing?
Siddamma: They have land, are not bad in studies and are aware (and hence not bonded).
Venkat: How do the upper caste landlords control the Irulas?
Siddamma: Their method is divide and rule. They cultivate a "Daad" Irula and there are examples in Kothur and Gandhigram. They give this Irula and his extended family food, drink, money and a good house. He is responsible for recruiting labor and behaves in the interests of the landlords. Just yesterday, an explosive situation in Kothur was diffused. The Irula population there was split in two, one for one against having a SVC (Sarpam village committee). The upper caste community there did not want the Irulas to organize and hold meeting. They threatened my life, ridiculed and insulted the Irulas and blocked the Bharathi Trust jeep. But Irula SVC members and leaders from surrounding villages had come to the forbidden meeting, prepared to show solidarity, picketed the police station and finally the landlords bowed to the pressure.
In many cases the landlords control land deeds and even the ration cards of the Irulas.
(In every village I visited, the Irula people talked about the Kothur standoff and were proud of their show of force and what happened there. Even if some didn’t, Siddamma talked to them about it and asked them what they felt about it and if they will replicate it in other villages).
Venkat: In what ways do Bharathi Trust and SVC educate the Irulas on their basic rights?
Siddamma: There is a big Irula meeting once in 6 months (meetings are expensive, the days wages are lost) for exchange of ideas and information. There are village camps where
Siddamma: They are useless. The problem is that they consist of upper caste youth who have and act in their own interests. They are more interested in movies and politics than in doing good.
Venkat: What about the issue of ST certificates?
Siddamma: Earlier, it was a long process and it was often abused. Usually non STs got the certificates and the jobs. Now, only high level officers can give the certificate and only after inquiring. We also do group applications for entire villages. 230 certificates were obtained so far this year.
1. Around 9.30 AM, we proceeded by Jeep to Rasapalayam village.
A forest department building next to the village TV center has been ad(o)apted for the school. A few feet of height (using brick and cement) and an asbestos roofing has been added. Many children started crying upon seeing us. The reason was that they thought we were doctors. They have one teacher and her name is Padma. This is the school where the children were least enthusiastic and most afraid of us.
Venkat: Hello, what did you all have for breakfast?
Children (chorus): "paal" (Milk). (Actually they drink milk kanji).
Venkat: What are they going to have now for lunch?
Padma: Pongal and sambar.
I then proceeded to the kitchen (basically a firewood stove) and tasted the pongal and sambar. It was pretty good.
They had a first aid box, but it was inadequate (had a nailcutter and medicine for scabies). Things that needed to be added were bandage, salt and sugar (to treat diarrhea). While talking with the adults, I learnt that the nearest hospital is 10 km away. Recently a lady with problems had to be carried with her cot to the hospital.
2. Next we went to Kottakulam village.
Due to widespread fever, only half the children were in attendance. This village has an order for a govt. school. Bharathi Trust has obtained permission to use the building for our school. I inspected the building and the construction is complete, there were wooden supports in place till the cement cured. Whitewashing was yet to be done. This school was temporarily taught in an Irula home. There is one teacher for the school called Ramani. Since she needs to travel a long distance, she is in need of a vehicle (a bicycle). Also, Nirmala, the coordinator might need a motorized vehicle.
I watched the children as they stood in line, washed their hands and sat down for their lunch of uppuma.
The villagers here have got 10 acres of land for economic development.
3. Our next destination was Senjiagaram.
This village is close to Uttukottai. In Uttukottai, I met town chairman Radhakrishnan who had given 8 acres for housing 150 Irula families.
Venkat: What about Irulas on the Andhra Pradesh side of the border?
Siddamma: They are in a much worse state. The influence and power of the landlords there is much greater. But we can attack the problem only a small piece at a time.
Senjiagaram and Janaganapalli have separate schools as opposed to the original plan. This is because moving from one village to another is difficult in spite of the proximity. I wonder if a small walk path can be hacked between them.
3. Senjiagaram
Senjiagaram has one teacher Selvi (she and her kid were abandoned by her husband).
The children here were very enthusiastic and very active. There was a lot of song and dance. When asked why some kid had fever, one of the kids even offered a diagnosis: standing in the rain. The children here speak without fear.
Siddamma discussed plans of bringing playthings for the kids. They were thrilled to find out that ring, frisbee, carrom board, ball, dolls and skipping rope were in store for them.
One of the Irula ladies I talked to (Yashoda) iterated that she thought education is more important than games. "Children play anyway", she said.
The school was a brick building with thatched roof. It was built by voluntary labor by the Irulas after their day’s work.
4. Next destination Janaganapalli
This village was afflicted with chicken pox. We stopped outside the village and Nirmala went in to check if we could go in. The villagers said we could come in and look at the school. This school has 2 teachers Mariamma and Murugamma.
This school had yet to put up the colorful posters that teachers create for educative purposes. These are posters of birds, animals, cars, airplanes etc… drawn by the teachers along with descriptive poetry.
This brings me to another point. A teacher’s job in these schools is much more challenging than a teachers job in an average school. Irula project teachers must:
5. Next stop, after a loong ride, Mullai Nagaram.
The original plan was for a combined school for Mullai Nagaram, Kanchivayil and Katavoor villages. But since transportation is not easy between these villages, the school is only for Mullai Nagaram.
This village was very far from the other villages we visited. We passed a couple of large duck herds on the way to this village.
Siddamma: Mullai Nagaram has a strong SVC with lot of activities.
The school has one teacher (Sumati) and meals were planned to start the next Monday. In spite of the rain and the evening hour, many kids came and enthusiastically sang songs. They also remembered Muriel (Muriel is a Belgian student who is part of the Rio foundation. She raised Rs. 3 lakhs for the Bharathi Trust Mahindra Jeep. She learnt the Irula tribal dancing and used it to raise money in Belgium. She also raised money and rice from local shops for Gandhigram. She visits the area once a year.) and the picnic they went to with her near the seashore.
Siddamma: Do you know that we are planning a vegetable garden for each school soon?
Venkat: I think that is great idea both for education and adding to the childrens meal.
The villagers in Mullainagaram were very hospitable. They came to see us inspite of pouring rain and gave us all hot coffee, saying that no one leaves Mullainagaram without having something.
Siddamma: We are deciding whether we need to have school in Ramapuram. Families have migrated for job reasons and there are only 15 children left there.
Siddamma: We at Bharathi Trust have some long term goals.