KALPETTA: In order to uplift the backward communities among the tribal population in Wayanad, the District Kudumbashree Mission has started a special ‘Mathruka Ooru’ (model colonies) project in 10 panchayats in the district to improve living conditions by educating them. According to Kudumbashree officers, while the district mission has seen success in its work among the tribal communities here over a period of time, certain tribal communities have never shown interest in any activity and subsequently not received the benefits of any government project through Kudumbashree.
The backward communities among the tribals were identified as being reluctant to any intervention of Kudumbashree workers. “We were successful in forming our units among the well-off sections of the tribal communities,” said additional district mission coordinator K T Murali. “They are cooperative and working on several of our projects and live in better conditions. But certain other communities such as those belonging to the Paniya and Kattunayakan live in pathetic conditions. Mathruka Ooru is aimed at these communities.” The project is now being carried out in colonies in the panchayats of Sultan Bathery, Pulpal ly, Manavant havady, Vellamunda, Padinjarethara, Kottathara, Vengappally, Pozhuthana, Vythiri and Moopainadu.
The district mission has started their units in these colonies and is conducting various activities to help residents socialise with the outer world. “Most of the people here are detached from the outside world. Men in the colonies do not have regular work and hence do not have enough money to have proper meals every day,” said Murali. Also, the children in the colonies are mostly dropouts. “They join school in June and stop going after the Onam vacation. And there are neither any facilities in their huts for studying and nor is there anyone to help them with their daily lessons,” he said.
Now the district mission has appointed a tuition teacher, also a member of the tribe, in these colonies to look into the issues of the children in the colonies and to motivate them. Also, various activities are conducted by the district mission to engage the working population of the tribe in various activities, mainly agriculture. “We started the project three months ago. We aim at a complete transformation of the colonies. We are seeing subtle changes in the conditions here. If successful, we will work on the project on a bigger scale next year,” said Murali.