PATHANAMTHITTA: A Tiny area under a torn tarpaulin sheet. One cannot call it even a makeshift hut, but that’s where Rajan and Omana, a young tribal couple, and their daughters aged three and seven have been living for many years — in Manjathodu colony near Laha in Ranni. As the rest of Ranni constituency came alive during the campaigning finale on Sunday, the two wondered what the noise was all about. The reason: They didn’t know an election was about to happen. They do have voter ID cards but don’t know its purpose either.
For the 40 Malampandaram tribal families living in the forest land at Manjathodu, there are bigger things to worry about. The biggest is to make sure that their children are not starving. Then there is the fear of elephants that could raid their colony anytime. Living deep inside the forest for weeks together to collect honey, they don’t feel connected to the rest of the world. But for the honey they collect, the world too doesn’t care about them. Over 100 voters live in the colony.
“Is this election time? We don’t have any money to go by the bus to cast votes. We also do not know who are all contesting and why this election is being held,” said Rajan, who was disappointed that he could not collect any honey on Saturday. Weather is getting hotter and a shortage of drinking water is being felt already, which adds to his tension.
Raju M, chieftain of Malampandaram tribe, and wife Asha do not know anything about the candidates. “We do not know who our candidates are. If a candidate approaches us, we’ll give our votes to that candidate. But nobody comes to us these days,” said Asha.
“We’ve been living in this colony for the past five years, but nobody cares for us. We don’t have drinking water and we’re forced to buy it. We don’t have power supply in our 40 houses here. We don’t have land either. Recently elephants destroyed half of my hut. We had requested authorities concerned to set up solar-powered electric fences or make trenches to stop the elephants from raiding our colony, but nothing happened. Somebody gifted a television set for 28 students of this colony during lockdown. But a monkey came and destroyed it and the study sessions of all students ended then. Why should we cast our votes?” Raju asked.
Thankamani, 35, whose husband died of fever three years ago, has since been taking care of four children. “My husband died on a hartal day due to fever. We didn’t get any vehicle to take him to hospital. I have bigger things to worry about than casting vote,”she said.