TIRUPPUR: As complaints galore about affluent and educated people owning cars and vehicles in cities failing in their duty to cast votes, about 100 tribal men and women walked for nearly 10km through hostile terrain to exercise their franchise at a polling booth at Thirumoorthy tribal settlement in Udumalaipet on Friday.
In a poignant exemplar of the political awareness at the grassroots level, the tribals skipped their breakfast and walked for more than four hours amid sweltering heat to fulfill their democratic responsibility.
According to sources, Thirumoorthy Hills, which comes under Pollachi Lok Sabha constituency, has one polling booth for five tribal settlements of Kurumalai, Mel Kurumalai, Poochikottamparai, Isaltattu and Thirumoorthi. A total of 668 voters reside in these settlements.
Tribals of Mel Kurumalai and Poochikottamparai have to travel more than 10km across mountainous slopes to reach the polling booth. They had to walk in groups to protect themselves from animal attacks and have to walk back home after everyone in the group had cast their vote. More than 600 families reside in these four tribal settlements. Most of the families own small land patches.
‘Drank stream water to quench thirst’
While most families depend on small forest produce for their survival, some of them also grow potatoes and a few vegetables. Most men travel to Udumalaipet town to work as weekly labourers and return to their settlements on Fridays.
There are two government schools near these settlements, and two teachers take classes for students from 1-6. The tribals have to trek down the hill for least 500 to 600 metres to get mobile phone signal.
Speaking to TNIE, Neelamegam (29) a tribal from Poochikottamparai settlement, said, “We had to skip breakfast and start early as we need to walk for more four hours.
About 60 of us, including friends and neighbours, travelled more than 10 km through the hilly terrain to reach te polling booth at Thirumoorthy tribal settlement.” Mallika (32), a tribal said, “I was suffering from knee pain for the past few weeks but I desperately wanted to vote. I set out to the polling booth around 7 am along with a few neighbours.
Some of my neighbours had brought ‘pazhaya soru’ (fermented rice) with them. I just drank water from jungle streams on the way. We cast our votes around 10am. Since most of us had skipped breakfast, we had meals at a local shop near the polling booth after voting.” Speaking to TNIE, 33-year-old K Kannamal of Kurumalai, said, “I set out from my home at 7am along with my husband and neighbours.
Since the settlement is more than 40 km away from the polling booth, we decided to use a shorter route which is about 7 km long but is filled with rocks and bushes and cuts through a thick jungle. It took more than three hours for us to reach the polling station. We reached the booth around 10am and cast our vote.”
Speaking to TNIE, an official from Tiruppur district administration, said, “We are aware of the hardship of voters. We have already received petitions and requests to set up a polling station at the hills. We have proposed to set up a polling station soon in Kurumalai, which is just two kilometre away from Mel Kur malai and Poochikuttamparai.”
