TRIBAL DEVELOPMENT IN KERALA

Since 1947 both central and state governments have offered a number of developmental projects to bring up the quality of life of the Scheduled Tribes. Unfortunately it remains to be in a deplorable state in the whole country. The state of Kerala too is not an exception. When we compare the quality of life of the tribal population with the people from the mainstream of the society one can easily notice that the gap is widening from decade to decade. Whether in the case of housing or health or education or in other basic human needs most of the people are in a very pathetic condition. The state of Kerala as a whole can be ranked with developed countries in education, health, life expectancy, basic amenities, quality of food etc. Contrary to these achievements of those in the mainstream our brethren from the tribal population are leading a life par below. We, from the higher strata of the society, are bound to help them liberally.

According to the available information Kerala has over one lakh tribal families spread over the entire state. Over 35% of them are in Wayanad district and around 15% are in Idukki district. About 15% of these families are living in deep forests at different locations in over 650 settlements. We, the so called intelligent class, may raise our voices to say that they are contented and happy in their natural habitat. It is nothing but imposing the comforts and happiness on them. We cannot conveniently forget that we too have started our journey from such environment before millenniums.

I wish to suggest the following rehabilitation process for the tribal families of Kerala. We may construct ten sets of two storeyed houses in all district headquarters of Kerala. Each block can accommodate two families, one on the ground floor and the other on the top floor. All ten blocks should be in  one location with some land around each house. A minimum of 1000 F2 built up area should be available for each house. The houses should be furnished with bed, almirah, tables, chairs, dinning tables etc with modern kitchen, cooking gas connection and Wi-Fi provisions. With the help of the district administration, other government departments and private agencies a minimum of one person from each family should be provided a job or arranged a small business. Education for their children should be arranged in the nearby schools/colleges. Arrangements should also be made for their medical needs. This should be spanned for a minimum period of ten years in one stretch.

This is not an unbearable project for our state. There are number of resources to tap from for this project. At the rate of 20 families in one district it would be 280 in the state for one year and, therefore, we can have a target of 2800 families in ten years. If this can be extended to ten places in each district, 28,000 tribal families can be brought to the mainstream of the society.

If the ruling government really want to help the poor and the downtrodden in term with their motto they can make a good start this year itself. This will be a result oriented help to bring up the tribal population. I wish to submit this for the consideration of the government of Kerala.

KV George
kvgeorgein@gmail.com