An obnoxious custom tribal women are forced to endure

After delivery, women have to spend 90 days in the shed, she said.
The thatched hut built by  Sholayar tribals
The thatched hut built by Sholayar tribals

VAZHACHAL: Arayakkappu Colony, a tribal settlement located three kilometres from Malakkappara deep inside the forest on the Kerala-Tamil Nadu border, is unique for two reasons - One, the absence of pets and livestock as they are easy prey for marauding leopards and other wild animals. Second, the prevalence of an ancient custom that spells woes for girls who have reached the menstrual age. 

As per custom, when girls of the hamlet, which is totally isolated as it lacks a road, are forced to shift to a makeshift menstrual shed or valayma pura in local parlance in the forest when they have their monthly periods. Often, they are accompanied by another woman. Braving the elements and threat of wild animals, they are forced to stay in such sheds. Last year, as many as seven houses in the colony, including the menstrual sheds, were destroyed in a landslide.

Speaking to Express, Geetha Ramakrishnan, a 38-year-old tribal woman from the colony who works in a Vana Society in Vazhachal, said, “It has been around a week since I’ve received any information from the colony where my parents and siblings live.

There is no power connection in the colony after the rain gained momentum and there is no means to contact them after a mudslip on the route,” she said, adding that the centuries-old custom of sending girls to the isolated sheds in the forest won’t change.

After delivery, women have to spend 90 days in the shed, she said. Recently, the government had constructed permanent valayma puras in most of the tribal colonies in Athirappilly panchayat. But Arayakkappu Colony and two other settlements were left out as they are deep inside the forest and without road connectivity.

UNTAINTED BY  MODERNISM
Arayakkappu Colony - 42 Mannan families and 9 Muthuvan families
Vettivittakadu colony – 13 Mannan families
Adichilithotti - 80 Muthuvan families
Arayakkappu Colony is 3 km inside the forest from Malakkappara

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