KOCHI: If you thought images like those of a man walking kilometres with his wife’s body on his shoulders alongside a weeping 12-year-old daughter can only be from some impoverished area outside Kerala, it’s time to cast a more discerning look within.While the roar of the FIFA U-17 World Cup was getting louder, the commercial capital of the state was also witness to the cortege of a man who reportedly died after having failed to get timely healthcare. A group of mourners, carrying the mortal remains, inched forward. They had a tough time of it, walking down a railway track before making their way to a crematorium. Welcome to the stark reality of Kammattipaadam - in the heart of the city.
A colony locked by railway tracks, the people of Kammattipaadam have no means to move out of the place without crossing the tracks on foot. K L Babu, 56, a headload and general workers’ union member, died on Monday due to cardiac arrest. Though his family members tried to take him to hospital soon after he developed signs of chest pain, they couldn’t do so in time as the track in front of the colony was occupied by a train, halted by the Railways as part of some work.
So they had to take him on shoulder through a circuitous route. However, as soon as he reached the hospital, the doctors declared him brought dead.This is not an isolated case.
There are around 50 families in Kammattipaadam, who have to either wait till the trains pass the busy stretch, or board and disembark trains halted on the stretch to move out under normal circumstances.
During rainy season, the entire colony is attacked by flu and other vector-borne diseases en masse as it is the waste pool of the city. Urban filth, including human excreta, often floats around the colony as the approximately 5 km sq long area is located below the level of the tracks.
“Overflowing wastewater from the nearby canals and plastic bottles thrown from trains round the year make life miserable here,” said Aravindakshan, a social worker in the colony. “Though a four-metre-long pipe was installed to drain the stretch, it was choked with filth. We have taken up numerous representations to find a solution to the issue, but all our cries seem to have fallen on deaf ears.”
Ernakulam Railway Area Manager said the Railways can’t relax the norms for the benefit of a section of people. They need permission from the Railways to undertake any kind of work in the colony, which is a cumbersome process as the final sanction has to come from Chennai. Further, if anything can be done on this matter, it’s for the state government to do so. The Railways can’t rehabilitate people for the reason that they were affected by the railway lines.
“Since the colony was cut off from the outer world, the Railways can explore the feasibility of constructing an underpass or setting up a railway gate. For that, it should be the people’s representatives or the civic authorities who should take the initiative,” he said.