Why Kerala’s development story does not reach Attapady’s tribals

Attapady is like an island of backwardness in a state known for its progressive social and development indicators

Maruthi and her husband Vellangiri are still mourning for their infant son who lived only for four-and-a-half-hours after birth in 2014. Maruthi, who continued working as a daily wage labourer into her third trimester, had grown steadily weak during pregnancy. There wasn’t enough food at home, the drinking water was contaminated and sanitation non-existent in her village.

This story is not set in a backward Indian state forever stuck at the bottom of the country’s development chart. Maruthi’s home is in Kerala, a state that, in March 2017, reported India’s lowest infant mortality rate — six per 1,000 children under the age of one, according to the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 2015-16. This is on a par with the rate in the US.

Why was Maruthi’s child among the rare cases of infant death in Kerala? Her misfortune is that she lives in Attapady, a tribal block in Palakkad—show development indicators way below the state average.

While life expectancy of the average Malayali has been rising over the years—it went from 62 years in 1970-75 to 74.9 years in 2011, a study by AIIMS shows the reverse in Attapady: The average life expectancy of an adivasi here has fallen from 70 years in 1975 to 66 in 2002 and came further down to 59 in 2010. The lifespan of the average adivasi in the country is 64 years.

According to the Iqbal Committee Report (2013), in Attapady, the average infant weighed around 600-800 gram. The mothers were anaemic and lacked the nutrition needed to deliver a healthy baby. Most children here were affected by intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR) and 47 infants had died here in 2012-13.

Kerala’s tribal population, 44.3 per cent, lives below poverty line, according to the ministry of tribal affairs figures (2013). The state’s average for homes with toilets is 95.4 per cent but 49 per cent of its tribal homes do not have toilets—the national average is 60.4 per cent. Half the state’s tribal population does not have access to clean drinking water while the state average for the same is 33.5 per cent.

Low mortality here coexists with high incidence of morbidity— number of persons reporting ailments in rural Kerala is 255 (per 1,000) and urban Kerala is 240 (per 1,000) whereas the all India average was 88 and 99 for rural and urban areas, respectively, in 2004.

“Lack of facilities like toilets and clean drinking water are a big concern for us because they lead to our community’s declining health,” said Manikantan, a daily wage worker.

Mechanisms of delivery of state programmes for health, nutrition and sanitation are ineffective in Attapady, said experts. “The health and nutritional status of tribal women and infants here is a problem. The state has failed to create an effective mechanism to deal with it,” said Rajendra Prasad, president of Thambu, Centre for Tribal Education, Development and Research in Attapady. “We need sincere execution of government schemes and constant checks on and review of the operations of the departments connected to the health and well-being of Attapady’s children.”

Valli, malnourished and anaemic, lost her child after birth due to low birth-weight. She recalled being asked to take vitamins and iron tablets because she was not fit enough for a pregnancy. The pregnancy kit that she received from

The state’s average for homes with toilets is 95.4 per cent but 49 per cent of its tribal homes do not have toilets