The Rediff Special/Venu Menon

Unwed mothers may spark tribal rebellion in Kerala

In the lush green tribal belt of Kerala, Subhi's tale still brings a flood of tears.

She had no home. No husband. And, as if the burden of two little daughters was not enough, she was carrying again. In the seventh of her pregnancy, as her tribal folks tried to come to terms with the possible arrival of another out-of-wedlock child, the 27-year-old bled to death on an abortionist's table.

And the tribals belt was up in arms, forcing the police to arrest the man responsible for the pregnancy and death. But, two years later, in November 1996, the man was set free by the district judge for lack of evidence.

The tale of many other unwed tribal mothers is equally tragic. Parvati knows the man who forced her to succumb to his seductive schemes. "I filed a complaint with the police and pointed out the man who made me pregnant. But no action has been taken so far," said Parvati who works as a casual labourer.

At 33, the single mother has a 15-year-old daughter but no proof against the man who works in a medical store at Mananthavady.

Proof? That is what science will bring to scores of sexually exploited tribal women.

In a novel measure with far-reaching implications, the state government and the Women's Commission have initiated steps to conduct DNA tests to identify these men -- officials figures put the number of unwed mothers in the two tribal strongholds of Wyanad and Attappady at 342.

The problem is particularly acute in Wyanad district which has the largest tribal concentration in the state. Thirunelly panchayat, which falls within the district, has a substantial proportion of unwed mothers.

Government estimates put the number at 99. A community-wise break-up indicates that the Adiyars top the list with 73 cases, followed by the Panniers with 11, Kattua Naikars 7, Kurumars 6 and Kurichiars 2.

Most of these women are victims of non-tribals who entice them with false promises of marriage. There are several others who, while working as maids or casual labourers on plantations and estates, are sexually abused by their masters and discarded when signs of pregnancy begin to show.

Some of these victims end up in prostitution, with the money they bring in attracting their fellow poverty-stricken tribals to the ''life of luxury''.

For all the government's proclamations, cynicism runs high among the sexually exploited. A Special Mobile Squad set up to deal with the problem has worked against the interest of the victims.

"The court should take the word of the girl,'' said Subhi's uncle and Thirunelly gram panchayat member Ramakrishnan. ''It should not insist on calling witnesses. If one man is convicted for this offence, it would serve as a deterrent."

Often money provides the means for a perpetrator to get off the hook. Rajani, 23, of the Adiyar tribe, was seduced by a boy from the forward caste Nair community.

When she became pregnant, local political workers took up the issue and compelled the boy to agree to marry her. But his parents had other plans. They paid Rs 25,000 to Rajani's father and settled the matter. She now lives with her son Rakesh Kumar in the Adiyar colony in Thirunelly, seemingly unmindful of her status as an unwed mother.

Much of the problem seems to stem from the shrinking authority of the tribal headman, which has led to an atmosphere of permissiveness within the community.

"In Adiyar and Paniyar tribes, the elders have lost control and influence over the young,'' said Adiyar tribesman Kuttappan. ''They have the largest number of unwed mothers. In other tribes, a girl who is pregnant out of wedlock is an outcast."

The tribal heritage does not equip the Adivasis to resist the outsiders's exploitation though, over the decades, they have been swarmed by hordes of settlers. Settlers who grabbed the tribals's land and sexually abused their women.

Such is the non-tribal intrusion that the Adivasis, once a majority in Wyanad, have shrunk to a minority, constituting 17 per cent of the district's population.

What is worse, the tribals's habitat has been invaded, their lifestyle irrevocably disturbed. The unwed mothers of Thirunelly are a legacy of that tumultuous era. They present a picture of violated innocence.

Often they lack a perspective of their problem. Take the case of Valli, the most recent one to come to the authorities's notice.

Surendran, a non-tribal, made her pregnant but also offered to marry her. She spurned him. "I don't like him," said Valli who is seven months pregnant.

With the police colluding with the perpetrators, the latter have been going scot-free. "Wyanad is a punishment posting for every policeman,'' said a police official. ''His job commitment is low. He does not view the Adivasi problem with any degree of seriousness. The tribals are not a powerful lobby for him to worry about."

It is an open secret in the district that the policemen deployed in the seventies to check Naxalite activity had no small role in swelling the ranks of Wyanad's unwed mothers.

The government's DNA initiative is intended to ease the burden of some of these women. It, however, promises to be an uphill task.

First, enormous funds have to be mobilised. A single test undertaken recently worked up to a whopping Rs 45,000 as the blood samples had to be air-dashed to the Center for DNA, Finger Printing and Diagnostics at Hyderabad. An alternative DNA testing facility has now come up in Thiruvananthapuram, which is expected to cut costs by half.

The maiden DNA test was carried out in the case of a minor blind girl who had multiple sex partners. The girl charged four men with sexual abuse, among them a government official from Kottayam.

The DNA test, however, revealed that the men were innocent. The real culprits are still at large as it was impractical to obtain too many blood samples.

Another tricky problem confronting the DNA tests is: taking the blood sample of an accused against his will. A court order would be required in the normal course. The Women's Commission, which enjoys judicial powers, could issue such a direction.

Alternatively, Section 53 of the Criminal Procedure Code could be invoked whereby the police can arrest a non-co-operative witness and draw blood samples without his consent.

The Women's Commission is upbeat about the programme. ''It is the only scientific way that can establish the paternity of a child born out of wedlock," said Commission Secretary Valsala Kumari.

But the single mothers of Wyanad are less than satisfied. They have lost faith in the government and are critical of the Women's Commission for its tardy pace.

Commission Chairperson Sugatha Kumar said, ''Ours is a young commission. We started just a year ago. We have more than 6,000 cases before us. We cannot deliver justice overnight."

But the Adivasis of Wyanad feel they have suffered too long. They decided last month to take charge of their predicament.

In a dramatic move that aroused secessionist suspicions, tribals led by firebrand activist C K Janu cordoned off an 188-acre stretch of reserve forest at Panavalli in Wyanad and hoisted a board declaring "self-rule" and prohibiting the free entry of non-tribals into the area. They also threatened to slap a fine of Rs 25 on trespassers.

Janu lists a catalogue of crimes committed against the tribal community by non-tribals. "The settlers have taken over our lands, turned our men into drunkards and desecrated tribal women. We have declared self-rule for our self-protection, to prevent more fatherless children from being born. An Adivasi colony is not a brothel for outsiders to come and go. Restricting the movement of outsiders in tribal colonies will ensure that the number of unwed mothers does not increase," she said.

Janu is determined to spread the message of self-rule in all tribal areas of the state. "The forest officials took away the no-entry board when I was away at Nagpur, attending a conference. They acted at the behest of the Communist Party of India-Marxist and the Bharatiya Janata Party. We are in the process of making another board which will be put up in the same place. The government and the Women's Commission have done nothing to help the unwed mothers or to book the culprits", she added.

The land grab and self-rule programmes at Panavalli are part of a countrywide drive by tribals spearheaded by agencies such as the New Delhi-based National Front for Adivasi Self-rule.

The Front has been demanding a separate law for self-governance in the scheduled (tribal) areas and its campaign forced the Centre to set up an all-party tribal MPs's committee to study the issue.

Headed by Congress MP Dileep Singh Bhuria, the committee submitted its report in January 1995. While Parliament has not endorsed the report, political parties have incorporated it in their manifestoes.

But the tribals of Panavalli, the torchbearers of the self-rule movement in Kerala, are impatient. It remains to be seen whether they can hold their ground in the war of attrition with the state authorities.

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