What Will You Do For Them?

Attappady tribal in Kerala(India) fends off sexual exploitation and death. The story is as follow:

It's time for the harvest of illegal marijuana fields,outsiders in jeeps and other vehicles would begin clawing up steep dirt tracks on the misty hills.

Outsiders silence the tribal chiefs with cash and threats; hire people to look after the crop and then cut and take it out through forest paths. They leave their young girls pregnant. Then new people come and take their place. Heavy unchecked influx of outsiders and 'consensual cohabitation' led to 378 unwed tribal mothers at last count in the Attappady hills.

Due to this, nearly 40 percent incidence of venereal diseases among pregnant tribal women. Young tribal women are also being exploited to feed the local pornography market. "There’s a market for these CDs, especially in the Gulf. It won’t cost anything to film them — many won’t even know a camera," said a local businessman, popping a CD into his computer. One of these films had a 14-year-old Kurumba girl, a student in a government-run Model Residential School for tribals.

Sugathakumari, one of Kerala’s top poets and former Chairperson of the State Women’s Commission said, ‘‘I went there last month, and a tribal mother, Marutha, pleaded with me to take away her two young daughters. I promised to take the three of them away. But they killed Marutha and threw her body out— the post mortem said her body had 142 wounds, and no one has been caught.’’

Dead stalks Attappady. Killing that is going unpunished. ‘‘We’ve had 24 murders since 2003 but there could be more. The tribals often quietly bury their people found dead, blaming it on the Odikkaran (evil spirit),’’ CI of police at Agali. Records speak of 108 cases of murder, rape and other atrocities involving tribal victims in the last 10 years.