The Adivasi settlements of the Attappadi region in Kerala’s Palakkad district, where over 60 children including newborns had died due to malnutrition in the past 20 months, have been witnessing a shocking increase in the rate of abortions and miscarriages among the tribal women because of malnutrition and lack of medicines and proper treatment facilities.
According to studies conducted by the Kerala Government’s Department of Health, 77 abortions have been reported this year from among the Adivasis of Attappadi, whose population is less than 30,000. Most of these abortions were reported from among the Irulars, one of the several tribes inhabiting Attappadi.
The region is facing a very dangerous situation in the sectors of public health, hygiene and nutrition and the successive State Governments are blamed for this. Citing the high rate of child deaths due to malnutrition and the drop in life expectancy among the Adivasis, tribal organisations have been accusing the State of implementing a policy of genocide in Attappadi.
According to the studies, the rate of abortion among the Adivasi women of Attappadi has seen an alarming leap in the past two years as the number of abortions in 2012-13 was 49 while this was 22 in 2010-11 and 27 in 2011-12. Seven abortions were reported in April last, while this number grew to eleven in May. There were ten abortions in Attappadi in the past 20 days alone.
Health experts have noticed that the main reasons for this alarming increase in the number of abortions and miscarriages are malnutrition, lack of availability of medicine and diagnostic and treatment facilities and lifestyle problems. Also, the authorities have been unable to formulate and implement effective awareness programmes for the Adivasi women.
Experts like Dr Prabhu Das, nodal officer of the Health Department in Attappadi, complain that shortage or total lack of immunity-enhancing medicines in the Adivasi region is rendering health workers unable to help the malnutrition-hit pregnant Adivasi women. Medicines are not available in the hospitals or the outlets of the Government, they say.
According to the Health Department, there are 608 pregnant Adivasi women in Attappadi at present and 214 of them have been included in the category of those who need special and intensive care but there are no facilities for this. “The tragedy is that many of these pregnancies could be saved if there were proper facilities,” said a doctor.
Meanwhile, the department’s studies have proved that Adivasi children have been dying in large numbers due to malnutrition, sheer neglect by the authorities and lack of proper medical care not only in Attappadi but also in Wayanad district where tribes people account for 17 per cent of the population.
Over 50 per cent of the child deaths reported from Wayanad are in the Adivasi areas. When the total number of child deaths reported in the district in 2012-13 was 14,274 of these kids were Adivasis. Statistics show that 41 of the 90 child deaths in Wayanad in 201-11 were in Adivasi regions while 46 of the 92 children who died in 2011-12 were from the tribal community.
“Adivasis constitute only 17 per cent of the population in the district but over 50 per cent of the child deaths are happening among them. Some call us endangered but we think we are unwanted. Many criticise the Adivasi activists who see this as part of a genocidal plan but that theory does not seem to be entirely unfounded,” said Sankaran, an Adivasi of Mananthawady, Wayanad.