A STUDY ON TRIBAL UNWED MOTHERS OF WAYANAD-2004

Kitty Lukose MSW

A woman who give birth to a child of someone without being married is called as unwed mother. Wayanad district of Kerala is a home to unwed tribal mothers; all victims of sexual exploitation. These women, some of them as young as 13, are struggling to survive along with their children. Most of the mothers are victims of seduction or one-night stands. In most of the cases, non tribal men entice them with false promises of marriage . Tribal girls recruited as casual labourers in plantations are sexually abused by their masters and fellow workers. Once they get pregnant, they are left in the lurch. Many of these women are forced to take up sex work for their survival.

In some Indian tribes, a girl who is pregnant before marriage is an outcast. There are a few tribal communities where a women and a men are allowed to live together before they tie the knot, just to make sure they are capable, but no tribal community accepts a women who bears the children of non-tribals. Those who are out casted by the society ends up as targets for sexual exploitation.

Tribals are the sons of the soil and they were living in harmony with the nature. There are five major tribals in Wayanad such as Paniyas ,Adiyas, Kurumas, Naikas and Uralies. After the immigration to Wayanad, lots of problems were creped in to the life of the tribal community. Illiteracy, ill health, poverty, landlessness, unemployment, cultural diffusion etc are a few among the problems. The presence of unwed mothers among the tribal community is one of the crucial problems that the tribal community is facing in Wayanad.

Wayanad is one of the hilly districts of Kerala state, located at the north-eastern boarder of the state, neighboring to Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Wayanad has a population of around 700000 people and out of that 18% are the indigenous tribal people. Wayanad is rich with its cash crops economy like pepper, cardamom, and coffee plantations. Wayanad once the land of tribals have been encroached by the immigrants from the southern part of Kerala who had migrated to this virgin land immediately after the Second World War. Tribals later become the casual laborers of the migrant population.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Women though stronger of the genders are maltreated in our society. Gender inequality remained extremely acute and appalling in all levels of society as in literacy, education, health, sexual harassment and exploitation. Focusing on such gender sensitive issues is a tough task even among tribals in the so-called modern society especially when it is related to women exploited society.

During early days the women’s status in the tribal society was much higher. Their women have never been in secularism and have shared the life of tribal men shoulder to shoulder to them. They never had child marriages; on the whole they have never been monogamous from the time immemorial. The beauty and charm of mother hood are expressed in a number of rites and ceremonies. As the time passes by, the status and the importance of the women in the tribal society turned upside down. There developed a great economic crisis that resulted in the exploitation of the tribal women.

The socio-economic and health issues of the unwed mothers are numerous .The culture, attitude and the behaviour of the tribal and the non-tribals are not conducive to the needs and the problems of unwed mothers. Poverty unemployment, rejection, isolation, neglect, lack of shelter along with different health issues like malnourishment, STD, psychological problems aggravates the situation. No serious attempts have been made to reduce the problem or to rehabilitate the victims either from the Government side or from the private sector. The apathy and stigma is still continuing in the high lands of Kerala.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

One of the major problems of tribal unwed mothers in Wayanad is poverty. The non-tribals are making use of the situations by convincing the girls that they will take care of her and family and once they become pregnant, they are left in lurch. Many of these women are forced into prostitution for survival resulting in sever health issues like STD, HIV/AIDS etc. some of them even sell their bodies at a low cost. Isolation, rejection and neglection by their family members and groups also leads to various psychological problems.

This study is a systematic attempt to determine the socio-economic and health needs of the unwed tribal mothers of Wayanad and to suggest ways to improve their situation. The study also attempts to bring attention to the socio-economic hardships borne by the tribal unwed mothers in the community and to help them to enjoy the government sponsored programs if any intended to them.

MAJOR FINDINGS

The major findings that the researcher came across during the data collection can be stated below:

• During the data collection the researcher found out that majority of the unwed mothers are from the Paniya tribal group. Since the Paniyas are laborers who work in the fields of the local landowners and work like the slaves have no power and thus they were exploited more.
• Pulpally has been traced out as the most sensitive area of the unwed mothers .As Pulpally is the boarder town to Karnataka, the tribal girls are recruited to Karnataka for farm labour.. These girls are exploited at the work area. Some of the girls are even missing. Those who come back tells the hard stories that they had faced and even given evidence of the death of their co-workers. Since the tribals are less in number and do not have any public support they keeps these stories with in themselves.
• The study found out that the age group of the unwed mothers is as early as 15-30 years.
• Most of the tribal women are illiterate. The study conducted by HiLDA Trust revelaed that the main cause of the dropouts from the school is the language problem. The tribal language does not have any script; their language is oral which is very different from that of the local language- Malayalam.
• Majority of the unwed mothers are coolie workers. But the money, which they earn, is not enough to meet the needs of a day. Some of them realized that selling their body gives more money than coolie work.
• Majority of the unwed mothers do not have ration card, which is to be given by the government.
• Majority of the unwed mothers are living with their parents and they have no identity or independence.
• The tribal girls who bear a child before marriage are considered as outcast. They are neglected from the family and living by their own. During such situations the outsiders make use of it . Such situation has to be prevented. Making the family members to accept the girl and her child is very hard but there shall be some measures to protect.
• The government is providing housing and other facilities for the unwed mothers but only a few unwed mothers enjoy these facilities. The panchayath has to take a detailed study on the situations and facilities that are given by the government. Even though some houses have built, there is no proper electricity and no door.
• The tribals are living together in a common place.10-15 houses are located with in the small area. These people do not have individual land, as they give importance to the collective landownership. Forest is their home, but as the government had thrown them out of the forest they do not have any facilities for cultivation. It is also found out that the non-tribal peoples are forcibly took some of the lands owned by the tribals.
• During the data collection, the researcher found out that many tribal girls are aborting their child using their traditional medicine. They used to go to government hospital for check up. Once they found that they are pregnant they abort the fetus. The researcher came across six such cases.
• Due to the effective work of the primary health centers in the rural areas, all the children have taken immunization.
• The root cause of many of the diseases is due to the lack of protected well, poor environment sanitation and poor housing.
• Non-tribals exploit majority of the tribal women. The culprits are persons seated at high level of the society. Due to the political and money power they influence the girl,s family and escape from the case.
• The researcher found out that no serious attempts were made to book the culprits. It is a human right violation and the authorities that are supposed to take action are not doing their duty properly.
• There are also cases where the girl is sexually used with their consent and when she become pregnant the boy turns back his hands. Proper sex education and the knowledge about their own physic has to be given to all the adolescents girls..
• The researcher also found out that the girl’s mother was even unaware that her daughters are pregnant. Due to the lack of attention one of the girls gave birth to her child near to a banks of a river.
• The health condition of the children is good. But there are also cases where the child is not having excreta hole. The government hospitals are denying the treatment for the one-year-old girl child due to the lack of proper facilities.
• Majority of the unwed tribal mothers who turned as sex workers are aware about the safe sex practice.
• Timely treatment is considered as important to most of the unwed mothers. Due to the economic and social backwardness these mothers and children are denied of proper treatment.
• Though the government is providing grants to the unwed tribal mothers they are not properly implemented. Majority did not get any assistance from any of the departments of the government.

COMMENTS AND SUGGESTIONS

From the study of the unwed tribal mothers the researcher have come to the following conclusions and suggestions;

• From the above study it could be concluded that illiteracy played a major role in the susceptibility of the tribal women for exploitation. Education of tribal children should be given more attention that could be played a major role in enlightening them, of their rights. The importance of education in increasing their prospects of a bright future and in attaining of their rights has to be emphasized.
• Landlessness, poverty and unemployment go hand in hand for the poor women. This could increase their susceptibility to exploitation. Government and other agencies could be sought to provide them with necessary land. Seasonable farm labour is not an answer to their financial problem. They could be taught new skills and trades and also to start savings for the future.
• Teenage motherhood is a unhealthy trend and that should be stopped at the earliest. The parents should be made aware of the situation and should be given proper orientation. . Money is hard to come by and in the absence of alternative employment they are forced to select an easier route. Adolescent Training with emphasis on life skill education should be given pertaining to sex, sexual choices, sexual health and so on.
• All most all the women are unaware of safe sex practices. This is sad but a true fact that will affect the health of the women and make them suffer life long. Utmost importance has to be given to the tribal women in giving training and awareness of safe sex practices. They should be empowered with information and develop confidence to be able to exercise choices especially those pertaining to sexual health matter. They should also be given trainings to encourage health-seeking behavior.
• Living under one roof leads to early sexual activities as observed among the tribals. The older generation, the newly married one, and young impressionable adolescents all live under the same roof in the same room. The tribals could be enlightened on the drawbacks of the kind of living arrangements.
• There are systems to prevent as well as to take stern action against the culprits who are sexually exploiting the tribals. But usually the issues were brought to compromise and the tribals are given a lump sum rupees of 500 to 1000. The special police cell who has to look in to such matters seems to be defunct. The system has to be made active so that the exploitation could be minimized.
• Though the unwed mothers are living in the house of either their parents or relatives, practically they are living alone. Their community as well as the non-tribal community is considering them as second citizens. Since they do not have any land in their name, they are not eligible to get a housing assistance. No houses means no ration card and hence no rice or kerosene or sugars from the fair trade shop or from any special distribution programmes. The issues and problems of the unwed mothers should be considered sympathetically with all human right aspects with out sticking on to legality or other bottlenecks.
• There shall be a sound body that shall work for the prevention of recruitment of girls to other states and there shall be proper follow-up of the tribal girls who are going for work.
• The women’s commission, which is functioning in the Sate, has to be taken serious steps to tackle the issue at the earliest.
• Co-ordination of the activities of various Government departments, three tire Panchayths, and NGOs has to be evolved for the effective implementation of various activities developed for the tribal women.