THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In the backdrop of alleged suicides of young victims of sexual abuse from the backward communities in the rural parts of the district, the Department of Women and Child Development (WCD), and other authorities are taking steps and conducting inquiry on the issue. To understand the issues faced by in these communities, Kanal Innovations, an NGO, is launching a campaign in five panchayats having tribal populations — Peringamala, Palode, Kuttichal and Vithura.
Anson P D Alexander, president of Kanal says, “We had conducted a study on the socio-political issues in Amboori in 2017-18 where we identified many issues faced by the women and children in the tribal communities. One of the major issues was the prevalence of child marriage. Many studies and seminars have also been conducted by the WCD department in tribal communities. Recently, in a study conducted on the tribal settlements in the district, we had also recorded the suicide of six tribal girls due to alleged sexual abuse and the report was handed over to the department.”
The NGO had recently conducted a children’s camp ‘Kaliyarang’ in Idinjar in a tribal school in Peringamala. The children’s camp was organised with the support of the District Child Protection Unit. “A total of 106 children from the tribal settlements registered for the programme. Even the parents of the children who accompanied them were sensitised about the issues. We have already started the campaign in Peringamala and as an initial step, we will give counselling to the girls in the tribal settlements,” said Anson.
Apart from the social-political issues, the NGO had also conducted a study on the impact of the pandemic on learning. It found students in tribal areas were able to attend less than an hour of online classes at a stretch due to lack of mobile phone connectivity and other issues such as power outage. Nearly 30 students from the tribal settlements in Kottor, Amboori and other nearby settlements took part in the survey. While the survey revealed five children were forced to use just one phone to attend classes, others had to miss the live streaming due to lack of proper internet connectivity in the area.