City Lights. Off.

By Mary George, Praxis Programme Officer, Chennai- Tamil Nadu

Mary underwent an immersion experience,initiated by Raffaella. Here she recounts what it is like to live away from the chaotic comfort of an urban life. Would she choose it over a city life? Read on.

On the 6th evening the team left for the immersion program to Mettur, a taluk in Salem district, through the contact of the organization called People’s Watch. The organization mainly works with the victims of violence and during the past few years they had been fully involved with torture victims’ rehabilitation programme.
Here it would be good to make a note to clarify who are the victims’ of torture. Mettur is a place where a number of people were caught as Veerapan’s associates and were tortured very cruelly to divulge the whereabouts of Veerapan. Many were tortured, kept a long time in the prisons, women were raped and given electric shock, school children and some of the victims were even shot dead. A few are still missing.

On reaching the organisation and sharing the purpose of our visit Mr. Arul Das, the coordinator suggested a place called Marthally, where a group of people were displaced way back in 1943-44, during the time when Mettur dam was to be constructed. That time it belonged to Tamil Nadu Government but now it come under Karnataka .They were mainly landless laborers and were rehabilitated to Marthally.

On reaching there they realized that the land given to them was not cultivable and went through a lot of hardship in adjusting to the place and situation. So the team was open to the suggestion given and decided to go to Marthalli. We reached there in the night by 10.40.P.M. The community organizer accompanied us and hosted us in his house for that night. The following morning the team divided into groups and left for the families assigned.

Marthally is one of the villages where the people from Mettur had rehabilitated and now they are spread around in 27 villages and have about 10,000 families with multiplication over the years. Most of them belong to Vanniyar and its sub caste. There are also Labadie’s and Lingayets who consider themselves upper caste.

They live on agriculture and also work as coolies. Some of the Lambadies go for granite stone cutting to Bangalore, Mangalore and other places. The Lingayates live mostly in the forest area and live on selling of fire wood, honey etc. Actually, they are financially poorer than the Vanniyars.

I was given a family of 6 consisting of a couple, their son and family with two children. They own a house and three acres of land that was bought over the years. When they came in they had an acre of land that was not able to give any yield. In addition, being close to the forest, the animals destroyed the crops. The same forest is getting more cleared as people have spread far and wide. During my stay with the family I spent most of the time with the old couple who live and works in the farm. They not only do cultivation but also have cows whose milk they sell daily. They have two sons and one daughter all of whom are married. The old man would share his family past whenever he had time. He was working as laborer in Mettur while the dam was being built and he was twenty two years when his and other families were asked to move out to Marthalli. So he knows the history of the place, its beginning and present to a large extent.

Initially, it was hard for them but now the family is content with what they earn from the farm. They work round the clock spending minimum time for rest and I realized they do not have any retirement age as both of them are in their 60’s. They spend a lot of energy and hard work in the farm so as to have sufficient provision to live on and have a house on their own. I was easily accepted into the family especially the elderly couple who made me feel at home by sharing with me their daily tasks: cutting grass for the cows, giving water, plucking weeds, bringing drinking water and many other activities.

Though I come from an agricultural family and knew how this life is, I felt challenged when it came to getting totally involved in their daily routine. However, by seeing the way the old couple was working despite their age, I got motivated. Their motto in life is “eat well and work well and you will be healthy, no room for sickness”. I shed all my inhibitions while being there. I could face the sun and cope with the work and felt happy at the end of it.

Whenever I got an opportunity, I asked them if there was any major issue affecting the surrounding villages or the nearby area. At first, he replied “none” but after a thoughtful moment he continued and said “We have never really had any external problem until the STF (Special Task Force) started coming for raids to our village in search of Veerappan . He is from the closeby village and the police doubted that the villagers were in contact or supporting him and his associates”. This has been a traumatic period for them, which began in 1993-94, till around 2000. The Minister Nagappa’s murder represented an additional reason to doubt the villagers and their involvement with Veerappan. STF dealt with the people very cruelly, arresting innocent persons, putting them into custody, and recurring to all sorts of torture. Women were raped and tortured, too. He was in pain while narrating the story; his own son has been imprisoned for 4 years and the whole family has highly paid for it in terms money as well as emotional suffering.

He continued by adding “we do not see him (Veerappan) as a criminal because he was very good to the poor. He smuggled sandal wood but shared it with the poor. Due to this popularity, in every house someone was caught by the police or harassed”.

These events have been later taken up by the Sathashiva commission. The NGO People’s Watch has also done a marvelous job in advocating for these innocent people. About 600 families were affected and with their intervention the atrocities were brought out and cases fought for. Many who were in the jail have now been released but came out with very weak bodies and minds. Ten-crore (INR) compensation has been announced for those families whose relatives have been killed or tortured. However, so far, only Rs 2.7 crore have been released. They are waiting for the remaining.

It was a great experience though there were inconveniences. It was a nice change from the daily routine. I was able to enjoy and appreciate the simple and unsophisticated type of living. One is forced to reflect and make comparison between urban and rural living standards. How easily rural poor trust and open up and own. They think that cities and city people are better off but I’ve realized that they are much richer in many ways, human relationships and wisdom that comes from life learning rather than books. I feel very strongly that if values are maintained or sustained it is due to the tight knit that their community life is.

<< Back