Why do malnutrition-hit children including new-born babies in the Adivasi colonies of Attappadi in Kerala’s Palakkad district continue to dieIJ Chief Minister Oommen Chandy says the reason is that Adivasis fail to eat food provided by the Government while Cultural Affairs Minister KC Joseph blames it on the alcoholism among Adivasi women.
The Opposition has demanded an apology from Chandy and Joseph for their “ridiculously irresponsible” statements but both are unwilling to budge even an inch from the theories they have put forward about the problem of malnutrition and children’s death in the Adivasi tribal settlements.
However, people working for the welfare of tribes people in the Adivasi areas of the State are saddened by the politicisation of such a huge tragedy - 56 children including infants and new-born babies have died of malnutrition in Attappadi in the past 19 months — by the Congress and the left after ruling the State alternately for the past five-and-a-half decades.
Chandy has been drawing flak since Sunday for his theory that children in Attappadi tribal colonies were continuing to die because Adivasi are not eating the nutrition-rich food the Government had been distributing there. He had stated this theory in an interview with a Delhi-based English magazine.
However, criticisms failed to force Chandy to correct or revise his statement. In fact, he stood firm in his theory when he spoke to newsmen in Thiruvananthapuram on Monday and even showered “sympathies” on the media for not being intelligent enough to report his statement undistorted.
“I am a Chief Minister working in the field with the people. I had visited Attappadi and had arranged for distribution of food suitable for and preferred by the Adivasis on the basis of the feedback I got. I had done that in consultation with the people there. My statement was based on my understanding of the situation,” he said.
The controversial statement from Joseph, known as one of the staunchest Chandy-loyalists in Congress, came amidst this. “Consumption of liquor is rampant among the Adivasis. There is no point in forgetting this. Even pregnant women take alcohol. If that is so, what could be the nutrition condition of the children they give birth toIJ” asked Joseph in Kannur.
Opposition leader VS Achuthanandan was quick to respond sharply to the statements from Chandy and Joseph. “These are attempts to hide their irresponsibility. The Chief Minister and Ministers are humiliating the Adivasis with lies after pushing them into starvation and death,” Achuthanandan said in Thiruvananthapuram.
“That 56 children have died of malnutrition in Attappadi proves that the Government has done nothing for them,” said Pannyan Raveendran, State secretary of the CPI. “Chief Minister Chandy and Joseph should apologise to the people of Attappadi,” he said. But just like Chandy, Joseph also reiterated his theory while responding to Pannyan’s criticism.
“The Governments so far have only allowed the settlers to exploit the Adivasis in Attappadi and I don’t think the CM and his colleagues are serious about this even now,” said a former official of the Attappadi Hill Area Development Society.
“The Opposition also is playing political games. Adivasis have no reason to trust these politicians,” she said.