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SOCIO ECONOMIC STATUS REPORT

OF PIRAMALAI KALLAR TRIBE

(A DENOTIFIED CRIMINAL TRIBE AND A NEGLECTED PRIMITIVE, ABORIGINAL TRIBE OF

TAMIL NADU)

TO

THE HIGH LEVEL COMMITTEE

OF MINISTRY OF TRIBAL WELFARE

NOTIFIED ON 14.8.2013

SUBMITTED

BY

ANNADURAI.S,

Mobil.No.09842671105


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Content

S.No.

Page No.

Synopsis of the Report

1. Introduction

2. Brief History of Piramalai Kallar Tribe

3. Adverse Impact of CT Act on Piramalai Kallar

4. State intervention to improve the statusof the Piramalai Kallar Tribe.

5. Present Status of the Piramalai Kallar Tribe

6. Denial, Deprival and Digressof Piramalai Kallar Tribe

7. Proposal for the improvement of soc io-economicand educational status of the Piramalai Kallar Tribe

8. Conclusion

List of Tables

1. Comparative Statement of between District Crime and Kallar

Crimes in Madurai District for the period 1933 and 1934.

2. Comparative Vital Socio-Economic Indicators

3. Children admitted under cradle baby schemes

4. The Prevalence of Dowry and Infanticide among Piramalai Kallars

5. Size of Farm Holding (in acres) among Piramalai Kallars


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6. Socio-Economic Indicators Of Piramalai Kallars

7. Literacy rate among Kallars as per 1921 census

8. Number of Schools for a Population of more than 1.5 lakhs for

Usilampatti Block Piramalai Kallars in 2011

List of Figures

1. Density of Population

2. Decadal Population Growth

3. Sex Ratio

4. Percentage of urban Population

5. Size of Farm Holding (in acres) among Piramalai Kallars

6. Literacy rate

7. Infant Mortality

Appendix

A) Location Map of Piramalai Kallar Tribes area

B) List of Denotified Tribes complied by the Home Department in the

year 1939 by Govt. of Tamil nadu

C) List of Denotified Tribes indicating the means of livelihood and socio-

economic status as compiled by the Home Department in the year1939 by Govt. of Tamil nadu

D) Copy of GO MS No. 1310 of dated 30.7.1979 of Soc

E) Copy of Community certificates dated 23.2.1973 and 26.2.1989

F) List of Denotified Tribes as notified in GO 85/2008 issued by Govt. of

Tamil nadu

G) Copy of Honble High Court order depriving the privilege of

recruitment in Piramalai Kallar Reclamation Schools.

H) Copy of Photos of depicting the Social economic of Piramalai Kallar

Tribes.


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Location of Usilampatti, in undivided Madurai District


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Chapter I

INTRODUCTION

The Piramalai Kallar [community] Tribes of Tamilnadu

is the most neglected denotified criminal tribes and aboriginal

and primitive tribes of India. The Piramalai Kallar Tribes is

most patriotic, independent, and egalitarian in outlook and

worst victims of systematic discrimination, social exclusion,

criminalization, human rights violation, atrocities of

hegemonic foreign rules and highly backward in socio-

economic-political-educational-health status mainly due to

marginalization of Tribes by the main stream society and

alienation of the Tribes.

The social economic and educational backwardness of

the Piramalai Kallar Tribes has been well documented by the

British Administrators in various reports submitted by then

Superintendent of Police of then Madura District Mr. E.B

Love Luck in 1919 and Mr. T.E. Moir, then labour

Commissioner report of 1920 and the Tribal Character of the

Piramalai Kallar Tribes also have been well document by

renowned anthropologist, Sociologist and Historians both in

the past such as Prof Thurston, E (1906 Ethnographic Notes


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in South India, Madras) and Prof Louis Dumont (1950

Kinship and alliance among the Piramalai Kallar) and Prof.

Anand Pandian of Department of Anthropology, Jonhs

Hopkins University on the social- economic status of the

settlement Kallars in Cumbam Valley of Theni District

(Crooked Stalks: Cultivating Virtue in South India -Duke

University Press, 2009, and Oxford University Press India,

2010) and sri.P.M.uthuthevar.,Auther of Muvanther Kulathe

samuga varallaru [social history].Kakuveeran. Printers.

Karumathur. Madurai.Dist. Tamilnadu., smilarly the adverse

impact of various suppressive measures such imposition of

Criminal Tribes Act 1911 are well documented by the

Department of History, Madurai Kamaraj University by Prof

Jeyaraj and his Ph. D Scholars, Dr. Maheshwari on Criminal

Tribes Act (2002) and Dr. P Jeganathan on the Kallar

Panchayat System in Colonial Tamilnadu (2006).

Despite meeting all the conditions of the tribal

community, the Piramalai Kallar Tribes continue to be denied

the status of scheduled tribes and the above stated

documents and historical records are never examined by the

concerned authorities. As this Piramalai Kallar Tribes have


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been systematically terrorized and alienated from the

mainstream and remain voiceless for last 60 years and their

demand for due recognition and extension of constitutional

and legislative benefits to this most deserving Piramalai

Kallar Tribes fell in deaf ears. As the present government

has constituted a High Level Committee to examine the

impact of various measures taken by the state on the lives of

the Indian tribes, our organization wish to use this

opportunity and submit the present socio economic status of

the Piramalai Kallar and make various specific practicable

and effective proposal to improve the socio-economic status

of the marginalized, backward, primitive aboriginal, denotified

criminal tribe of the Piramalai Kallar Tribes.

Keeping in view of the all India nature of the

committee, we submit only a brief report of the status of the

Piramalai Kallar Tribes and It is requested to allot time for in

person presentation before the HLC along with all the

supporting documents.

The report has been divided into seven chapters along

with Appendix of some of the supporting documents and

photographs and to make the report is reader friendly, the


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data are not loaded in the report and the same shall be

presented during oral submission.


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Chapter II

BRIEF HISTORY OF PIRAMALAI KALLAR TRIBE

The Piramalai Kallar Tribes of Tamilnadu is the one of

the most ancient aboriginals of India. Unfortunately due to

social exclusion of Piramalai Kallar, there are lots of

misconception and myth about the tribal characters of the

Piramalai Kallar. However, the recent discovery of the DNA

of a Piramalai Kallar matching with the aboriginals of the

Africa and Australia has pulverized all the misconceptions

about the origins of the Piramalai Kallar and it has been

established beyond reasonable doubt that Piramalai Kallar is

certainly one of the most ancient, indigenous, Primitive

aboriginals. As it happened with other Tribals of India, the

invaders of India forced the aboriginals to move into forest

and settle there and some of them remain a nomadic tribes

and one of such Tribes is the Piramalai Kallar.

As with any other Tribes initially there were hunters

and food gatherers and during that period itself they had

developed various skills of defence and offence such as

Valaithadi which is similar to the Boomerang of the


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Australian aboriginal. Though this tribal were living in plains,

as they were highly freedom loving and independent, they

never subjected themselves into the rule of any kingdom or

governments. During the 3rd

and fourth century itself, the

Piramalai Kallars started semi-settled life and had a mixed

pastoral-agro economy. However, they have been mostly

engaged as paid warriors by the then rulers of the land and

during peace time, they have been engaged in the work of

Kaval and spies to collect intelligence gathering from the

enemy territories and all these works were done by the

Piramalai Kallars. This indigenous group settled in the foot

hills of the outer western gates and evolved their own social,

political and economic institutions. Though due to cultural

diffusion, assimilation and interaction with other communities

some of the features of the mainstream Hindu Cultures were

also integrated into their system, the core culture of the

Piramalai Kallars were preserved and practiced in letter and

spirit till date. The core culture of the Piramalai Kallars of

Kinship, Marriage system, political organization of Nadus,

Panchayats and administration of Justice including criminal,

civil and matrimonial disputes and religious practices such as

division of labour during the social gathering and festivals,


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worshiping original tribal God/Goddesses, pure system of

tribal rituals and practices without any influence of

bramanisation and sanskirtisation. The Temple structure and

layout of the temples are unique to only Piramalai Kallars

which are 100 per cent in tune with the primitive Tribes of

India especially Gond tribes of central India and Chota

Nagpur regions.

Whenever, the outsiders tried to subjugate the

Piramalai Kallars, they rebelled against them and

successfully retained their original socio-political-economic

structure. However, the Piramalai Kallars were having active

relationship with the Kingdoms upto the 18 th centuries and

mostly the Piramalai Kallars were used as reserved standing

subsidiary army during war time and during peace as

Kavalkars/guards/spies etc. As a result, they did not

integrate with the main stream of the societies, though they

had evolved robust social institutions, they could not keep

pace with rapid advancement of modern civilization and

technical advancement mainly due to total absence of

organized education system and as a result they became

socially, economically and educationally backward.


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While being so after the establishment of East Indian

Company Governance in the southern part of Tamilnadu in

the Madura Regions, the Piramalai Kallars proved to be

insurmountable adversary of the Britishers in the entire

length and breadth of the world, the British had superior fire

power through their advanced guns and artilleries, the

Piramalai Kallar could provided stiff resistance through their

traditional weapon of livelihood (for hunting) i.e. Valaithadi.

However, due to superior Army power of the company, the

company for the first time invaded in the exclusive territory of

the Piramalai Kallar and first thing they did, was collected all

the 11000 Valaithadi of the Piramalai Kallars and burned on

the same day. However, each and every individual of the

Piramalai Kallar both the men and women are an

independent Army on their own strength and they held the

value of freedom more than their life. In fact this core value

of independent living is as age old as human civilization, this

value is ingrained into the DNA of each Piramalai Kallar, in

spite of invasion of tumultuous modernization, westernization

and globalization into their territory also, even today each

individual of the Piramalai Kallar function as independent


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republic and they never ever accept any form of superior

and inferior treatment on any account.

Therefore, the Piramalai Kallars proved to be real

threat to the British Governance both during the company

and Queens rules. Similarly some of the Tribes of the North

India had also put forth stiff resistance to the British Rule,

and all the three governance technique of Britishers viz.

Suppression, Carrot and Stick Policy and Divide and Rule

failed in controlling them, hence, the Britishers decided to

apply the most draconian law a European Invention viz.

Criminal Tribes Act to suppress these valiant, independent

primitive tribes by branding them as criminal tribes which

gave absolute power to the police and snatch away all the

fundamental rights of the people and treat such human

beings as beast.

Thus the Criminal Tribe Act 1871 was enacted and

implemented in the first phase in Northern Indian and after

amendment in the year 1911, the said act was for the first

time imposed on the Piramalai Kallars of Madura regions in

the year 1914 only against the known dacoits (KD) of

Keelakuilkudi Village but the Police could not succeed in

subjugating the rebellious Piramalai Kallars and as a result


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for the first time the said Act was imposed on the entire

Piramalai Kallar Community in the years 1919. Under the

said act the police has been given absolute power to curtail

the human rights of the entire community as per their whims,

as per the act all the adult males of the community must

register under the CT Act and all of them should sleep only

at police station every day during 6 PM to 6AM and during

day time also they are not permitted to visit their near and

dear without passport from the government officer and the

police were given absolute power to arrest any Piramalai

Kallar for any reasons or without reason and dispose him the

way they like.


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Table - 1

Comparative Statement of between District Crime and Kallar Crimes

in Madurai District for the period 1933 and 1934

Type ofCrimes 1933 1934

Total District

Crimes

Piramalai Kallar

Crimes

% of PK

Crimesto totaldistrictcrimes

Total District

Crimes

Piramalai Kallar

Crimes

% of PK

Crimesto totaldistrictcrimes

Incident Deduction Incident Deduction Incident Incident Deduction Incident Deduction Incident

Murder 51 9 9 2 18 30 4 6 0 20

Dacoity 3 0 2 0 67 5 1 4 1 80

Robbery 41 19 29 14 71 36 10 12 6 33

House

Breaking 159 34 85 23 53 156 27 61 18 39

Theft 185 11 40 6 22 166 35 57 16 34

cattletheft 132 44 71 31 54 141 48 88 37 62

Total 571 117 236 76 41 534 125 228 78 43

Source: The report on the administration of the Police of the MadrasPresidency, 1935-35

The above table shall demolish and destroy the myth of

branding Piramalai Kallars as born criminals because the

proportion of the population in the total population in the

then Madura district is more than 40 per cent and the overall

crime incidence in respect of Piramalai Kallars is only 41 per

cent and above all, the theory of Piramalai Kallars as

dangerous criminals as that of thugs therefore the CT Act

was imposed on the entire community has been proved to be

false because the empirical data of the British Raj reveals

that the though the incidents of cattle theft and dacoity are


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reported to be higher than the average, the inhuman crime of

murder is only 18 per cent total crimes which establish the

hard fact that the Piramalai Kallars were not thugs and it all

the more confirms that Piramalai Kallars are more human

than the rest of the population of the district. Therefore the

theory of the so called criminal tribes is only imaginary,

invented and imposed by the British Raj to subjugate the

valiant independent primitive aboriginals. Therefore, the

Piramalai Kallars are the real victims of the ruthless,

exploitative imperial forces and the exploitative society.

Therefore the large society is indebted to undo the injustice

heaped on these aboriginal tribes.

The CT Act, apart from terrorizing the entire

community, had completely restricted the movement of the

Piramalai Kallar and the imposition of CT Act on the entire

community by branding them as born criminals had created

indelible social stigma against the Piramalai Kallar Tribes

and became the worst victim of the double discrimination

both by the Main stream societies and the foreign rulers,

whereas the SC/ST was victim of single discrimination. The

detailed accounts of the horrible and irreparable damage

done to the Piramalai Kallars due to the said CT Act and


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ever hunting social stigma shall be explained in the

succeeding chapter. As the British Government tried to

enroll the name of Piramalai Kallars male by recording the

left thumb impression of them as almost 95 per cent of them

were illiterate(thus the Act was also called as Thumb

impression Act), the Piramalai Kallar put all the possible

resistance against such registration and one notable

incidence is that on 03.04.1920 the Piramalai Kallars of

Perungamanallur decided to disobey the order of the officer

and thus a crude war broke out between the able brave

warriors of Piramalai Kallar and mighty and all power

paramount British Raj and on the said incidence some 16

persons including a women were shot dead on the spot. As

this was widely published by then ethical vibrant media, the

atrocities committed by the British Police came under severe

criticism from all quarters both within the country and abroad.

This lead to some change in the British approach and

they had decided to use the age old carrot and stick policy

i.e. the then Superintendent of Police Mr. Love Luck had

recommended that while implementing the CT Act various

welfare measures also should be taken. But this also did not

succeed in subjugating them as the Piramalai Kallar were


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highly independent and they never submitted to any

sovereign power at any point of time.

Thereafter, British adopted the divide and rule policy,

and accordingly they introduced the Kallar Panchayat system

and Abeyance system. Thereby, the British dived the Tribes

into leaders and criminals and made the leaders to control

the so called rebellious/criminal Kallars etc. This change in

the system is also only to save the skin of the Britishers from

the adverse criticism of the rest of world. Thus the atrocities

and large scale human and animal rights violation continued

unabated.

Though the valiant individual rebellions and communal

boycott of the system continued, some of freedom fighters

such as George Josep, an advocate at Madurai, Pasumpon

Muthuramalainga Thevar who spear headed the anti CT Act

movement, NG Ranga leader of left wing, Shri Naidu also

fought strenuously to put an end to this draconian law. In

1936, at Abiramam Town of Ramnadu region an all Anti CT

ACT conference was held and a delegation met then

governor and submitted their resolution but nothing moved.


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However, Mr. H.S.Hood, the Secretary, Department of

Home, had sent circulars to all district collectors seeking the

status report on the CT Act.

The atrocities and extreme form of human subjugation

for more than three decades caused irreparable damage to

the socio-economic and political status of the Piramalai

Kallar. The condition of the Piramalai Kallar was worst then

the SC/ST, thus for the first time in the history of affirmative

actions, the British Government initiated various welfare

measures exclusively for the betterment of the Piramalai

Kallar(as detailed infra) and the Harijan welfare schemes

were started only thereafter. All the Piramalai Kallar welfare

schemes were also implemented by the harijans welfare

department both before and after independence. However

due to total alienation from the main stream society and total

absence of representation, the Piramalai Kallar were not

classified as Schedule Tribes and denied their rightful

constitutional safeguards and welfare measures. Above all,

due to local political animosity, as the Piramalai Kallars were

critical of any form of unjust system, a number of welfare

measures provided by the then ruthless British rulers were


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withdrawn gradually by the succeeding apathetic

governments.

This kind of political maltreatment was also mainly due

to sick minds of the then congress leaders because most of

them are rebellious in nature, the call of Nethaji

Subaschandra Bose to end the British Raj immediately and

by any mean, naturally appeal to them and they reaming the

torch bearers of his ideology of Nethaji and his Forward Bloc

till date and they had joined INA in large number and

sacrificed their lives to the mother land. Thus the Piramalai

Kallars also became worst victim of political discrimination

for committing only sin of supporting Nethajis who had no

other vision then liberation of mother land.

This discrimination continued even after the so called

offspring of the Justice Movement, the Dravidars Party came

to power and one such case is that the Social Welfare

Department of government of Tamilnadu vide its GO M.S.

No. 1310 dated 30.7.1979 had order that henceforth the

DNTs shall not be called as Tribes and they shall be called

only as Community. This was done of the state government

without any reasons or rhyme but the said GO erroneously

quotes the Government of India, Ministry of Home letters


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111019/18/78-SCT-V dated 4.11.1978 and BC. 11026/2/79-

SC.BCD III dated. A perusal of the said GO annexed with

this report shall reveal that the very reasoning cited therein is

uncalled for, illogical, perverse and illegal on many respects

because even the latest National Commission for DNTs has

specially recommended constitutional safeguards to DNT.

Therefore, the said GO should be allowed to exist even for a

day.

That apart, the DNTs in Tamilnadu are not given

separate reservation, they have been erroneously included

into Most Backward Class where number of numerically

predominant, relatively far advanced then, the Piramalai

Kallars, thus the reservation benefits to DNT remains an

unrealizable dream/day dream whereas governments after

governments in the state have been trying to extent the

reservation benefits only to already advanced societies thus

vide GO MS. 85/2008 the government has given exclusive

reservation of SC Arunthathiyars and BC Muslims and above

all, the said GO has tempered with the list of DNTs in

Tamilnadu, without any basis by including more than 19

non DNTs into DNTs.


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Thus the brief history of Piramalai Kallar stated supra

shall real that this is the only tribes in the whole world,

against who double, triple discrimination, temporal and

contemporary human rights violations and extreme form of

injustice are being perpetuated mainly due to misconception

and non representation of the Piramalai Kallars, therefore,

before studying the present socio-economic status of the

Piramalai Kallar, it is pertinent to learn the adverse impact of

the imposition of CT Act against them and consequent ever

chasing social stigma on the lives of the Piramalai Kallars.


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Chapter III

ADVERSE IMPACT OF CT ACT ON THE

LIVES OF PIRAMALAI KALLAR.

The adverse impact of the CT Act on the Piramalai

Kallar socio-economic status is highly deplorable and well

documented but subsequently all most, most of the

sufferings of the Piramalai Kallars has been suppressed as

stated supra partly due to political animosity and partly due

to misconception and myth about the Piramalai Kallar Tribes

and partly due voicelessness/noiselessness of Piramalai

Kallar Tribes. Thus, it is sine quo non to highlight only a

spectrum of the pathetic story of the Piramalai Kallars in the

succeeding Paragraphs of this chapter.

a) The said CT Act empowered the Government to

designate any tribe, gang or class of person 'a criminal tribe'

if they were addicted to the systematic commission of non-

bailable offences(explicit objective but the evil deign was to

brand the rebellious aboriginals who had unparallel mastery

over the guerilla warfare as criminal thereby deprive them

the survival support from the majority of the main stream


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society). Further, once notified the members of the tribe had

no appeal to the court. The notified criminal tribes were

restricted to the confines of the villages they live and also in

the criminal settlements. Such peoples were not allowed to

move away from the village without any passport and they

were asked to report to the Police Station every night and

stay till dawn of the day.

b) Thus, the notified criminal tribes were put to a lot of

hardship and were deprived of their personal liberty. For

more than 3 decade, they could not lead a normal live, and

the atrocity did not end with male members alone but done

to women, children, aged and also their cattle and chattel.

c) The members of the designated criminal tribes were

placed outside the provisions of the ordinary law and

subjected to intensive and indefinite Police supervision and

they were exposed to the harassment and blackmail of the

Police and the local land-lords and village officers who were

also entrusted with the supervision. Hence W.J. Hatch said

that, "I was doubtful whether any other Act on the statute


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book goes so far in giving the Police powers to take away a

man's freedom".

d) During the imposition of the CT Act against

Piramalai Kallars endless list of the custodial death,

encounters, massacres were carried out by the police with

impunity as per the records on the 1st day of April 1920, 750

Piramalai Kallars of Mettupati village were arrested at the

dawn of the day and tied together in a single rope and

marched to prison in the hot sun and they are not allowed to

have water and food during the said ride not even the cattle

were sparred as there were no men in the villages many

cattle died of starvation as they were tied in the shed of

Piramalai Kallar. On 03.4.1920 as stated supra 16 Piramalai

Kallars were shot, killed, and burned like beasts.

e) They were used as slaves in tea plantations of

western gates (which has been well depicted by the national

award winning movie Pithamagan).

f) They had been used as slaves for all purposes and

which recorded by none other than Mr. M.S.Pattibhirama

Ayyar, a member of the Legislative Assembly expressed that

the Act was passed by the Imperialist Government to


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strengthen their own hands. It was used as a political

weapon and during the Non-Co-operation Movement, the

Police harassed them by dubbing as criminal tribes Under

this Act and these people were used as readymade audience

and they were brought to the places which were visited by

Simon Commission in order to show that the Indians were

welcoming the Simon Commission. Thus politically, this Act

resulted 'contrary effect to the British as in the case of the

Minto-Morley Reforms Act of 1909 ( Madras Legislative

Assembly Debate (MLAD), March-April, 1947, p.567).

g) They were forced to work in the farms and houses of

the police officers/revenue officers without wage a crude

form of forced labor.

h) In the process, they had lost all their livelihoods and

whatever little assets they had. Their land became barren

and unsuitable for cultivation and due to deforestation, their

traditional livelihood also totally deprived of

i) They were deprived of any public life as persons of

other community, thus there was 100 % absence of their

representatives in any institutions of governance etc.


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j) As they were uprooted from their home land to settle

them in faraway places as plantation workers/mining

workers/industrial workers, they lost all their age old rich

culture and heritage and their robust social institutions

evolved over millions of years were severely damaged.

k) As the entire Piramalai Kallars were branded as

Criminals, an indelible social stigma has been engraved on

the face of each Piramalai Kallar individuals and as a result

the anger against the main stream societies are manifested

in the form of various deviant behaviors and including their

works, actions and approach towards the main stream

society which needs to be rectified immediately before

capitalized by the extreme elements in the society.

l) Because of the imposition of CT Act, the Piramalai

Kallars were denied their Traditional jobs of Kaval(a job of

protectors of persons and property combined with immigrant

officer), rather, the then government itself instigated other

communities to mobilize fund and fight against Piramalai

Kallars. The Piramalai Kallars were forced to be at war with

everyone in the world as their due place is not given by the

society mainly due to their egalitarian ethos in conflict with


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the exploitative, imperial and capitalistic organization of the

main stream society.

m) Because of the imposition of CT Act, indeed, many

individuals had became hardened criminals not because the

entire community is criminal but faulty imposition of

draconian law upon highly egalitarian and judicious tribes.

n) The discrimination suffered by the Piramalai

Kallar because of the CT Act is many fold because the SC

caste face discrimination only due to the notion of purity-

pollution principle of the caste system whereas the Piramalai

Kallar suffered discrimination on account of this principle of

purity-pollution also as they were also meat eating tribes

and similarly the Tribal people suffered only geographical

isolation, the Piramalai Kallar also suffered geographical

isolation besides they suffered from statutory discrimination

by the foreign rules by breading them criminal tribes, they

were treated as slaves, they were employed as forced labour

and they were not even allowed to have natural mating

during the night for 3 decades, their human rights were

violated beyond the capacity of any language to describe

their sufferings.


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o) The adverse impact of the CT Act on lives of

Piramalai Kallars is spoken by various members of the then

legislative members :-

i) In the Legislative Assembly in the year 1947, Mr.

Raghavayya said, " the CTA has been condemned by one

and all, not only Judges, not only Politicians, but the great

Indian National Congress condemned it in 1936 and every

civilized man had nothing but contempt for this most horrible

piece of legislation". Further, he stated that these notified

criminals were expected to render forced labour by the

Police (or) the Village Munsif for their personal end, failing

which they would be charged with false cases. Further he

said, with regard to the settlement that many persons who

did not committed any offence were confined to it as he knew

that there were some families who had been confined for

generations - father, son and grandchildren were in the

settlements.

ii) Though the Act at least in principle aimed to reform

the so-called criminals, it did not do so and hence another

member of the assembly by name Pillalammari

Venkateswarlu said, " that the provisions of the Act are so

rigorous that their application to members of the tribes is


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more likely to make them hardened criminals than to reform

them.

iii) Mr. Nagappa explained how the notified criminal

tribes had suffered at the hands of the Police. He said that if

a Police Officer want anything to be done, he simply sent for

these people and asked them to do it all for nothing, for no

wages he used them as they were the slaves. The problems

caused by the CT Act were also brought to light. The notified

criminal tribes who were asked to report to the Police

Stations at odd hours were asked to stay in the Police

Station itself even though they were ailing. Even amidst

severe illness they were stressed to report. An incumbent

who was operated for strangulated hernias too met with such

stresses. So the members of the Legislature of Madras

demanded the repeal of the Act of 1924 and early removal of

their distresses. It was accused that those people who did

not attend the Police Station were also branded as 'habitual

offenders'. Such measures not only degraded the prestige of

the individuals but also encouraged them to continue their

unlawful deeds.


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p) Even today jobs are denied to the Piramala Kallar on

seeing their community certificates.

q) Because of the backward culture of the Piramalai

Kallar no single public or private industries are established in

the regions of Kallar nadu for last 6 decades and no standard

schools or higher educational Institutions has been

established.

Therefore the adverse impact of the various atrocities,

injustice committed against the Piramalai Kallars by the

British Raj and the larger society is immeasurable. In the

history of Piramalai Kallars, the 19th and 20

th century is a

dark age and it has pushed them down into the

unfathomable pits of pathetic adverse socio-economic

conditions. Hence, to heal the wound done to the very

psychic of the Piramalai Kallar, numbers of affirmative and

ameliorative actions are required in a sufficient scale,

magnitude and commitment and not mere lip or paper

service.


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Chapter - IV

STATE INTERVENTION TO IMPROVE THE

STATUS OF THE PIRAMALAI KALLAR TRIBE

a) Before Independence

Though the British government was interested in establishing

their government only, when they imposed the most draconian law

on the rebellious aboriginals of the India, they came under server

criticism of progressive thinker of the world. Thus in the year

1924, as a measure of Reclamation of Piramalai Kallar, the British

Government launched the Kallar Reclamation Scheme under

which a Piramalai Kallar Reclamation Fund was also created. The

said fund was managed by a Committee of 12 members aiming at

the general improvement of the community by granting loans for

agricultural and other purposes and also for the general welfare of

the community. The Kallar Reclamation Scheme mainly

endeavoured to educate the students of the Piramalai Kallar

community and at the end of 1940 itself, there were 60 schools

established under Kallar Reclamation Scheme with student


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strength of over 3182 (Administration Report for the year 1940,

Government of Madras, 1940, p.11). Further Piramalai Kallar

students were granted scholarships and stipends. These schemes

were implemented by Piramalai Kallar Special Officers for Madurai

by pooling officers from Police, Revenue, Educational and Co-

operative Departments. As a result 270 special cooperative

societies for the betterment of Piramalai Kallars were established

at the end of the year 1946 (MLAD, September-October, 1 947,

p.206) The under the CT Act a Piramalai Kallar Special Officers

for Madurai was also appointed. Besides this the following

schemes were also implemented :-

i) As most of the Piramalai Kallars were asset less and

land less, the government after deforesting the areas

assigned the land to the Piramalai Kallars to encourage

them to undertake settled cultivation. Thus during the

period between 1935 to 1939 for about 270 farmers

about 648 acres of lands were assigned for cultivation

(Administrative Report for the year 1939, Government

of Madras, 1939, p.17 and 18).

ii) In the land were dry lands, in order to enable them for

digging and deepening of wells for irrigation Takkavi


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Loans were granted to Piramalai Kallars. To assign

lands for cultivation.

iii) As most of the Piramalai Kallars also homeless, the

British government also allotted house site to them.

iv) Two Special Revenue Inspectors were attached to the

establishment for Dark-hast and loans for Kallars upto

1938 (G.O. Ms.276, Home, dated 18 January 1939).

v) Three industrial scholarships for training the students in

the Industrial Schools at Madurai was implemented

vi) The Scout Units were employed to engage the boys

and girls in spinning, mat-weaving, basket making,

knitting and other cottage industries.

vii) To avoid people from lapsing into illiteracy and to

continue education among adults, night classes were

held in the Schools.

viii) 'A Kallar Reclamation Employment Bureau' was

started during February 1937. Through this Bureau 30

educated and 500 uneducated Kallars were provided

with suitable jobs(Letter No.M.1892/37-CCCI of the

District Magistrate, Madurai to the Home Secretary).

b) After Independence


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It is painful to submit that after independent due to

various historical and political reasons, the most

deserving section of the society, Piramalai Kallar was

neglected in very respects, as stated supra even the

Kallar Reclamation department functioning under harijans

welfare department was not allowed to function under the

said department and it was transfer to social welfare

department. With lukewarm response and willy-nilly, only

the Kallar Reclamation schools were allowed to run and

even in the general schemes, the area settled by the

Piramalai Kallar were the most neglected area. However,

due to the community efforts of one Arts college was

established in the year 1970 but the same is yet to deliver

quality education for want of facilities and fund. Rather

after independence all the specials schemes as listed

infra had been discontinued making the socio economic

conditions of the Piramalai Kallar very pathetic as

explained in the chapter on present socio economic

conditions of Piramalai Kallar.


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c)Impact of the state intervention on the lives

of Piramalai Kallar Tribe

A careful analysis of the various special schemes taken

by the British raj and in Free India, shall reveal that though

the Britishers had taken number of steps to improve the

socio-economic and educational status of Piramalai Kallar,

they could not make any serious impact on the lives of

Piramalai Kallars for number of reasons because majority of

the Piramalai Kallars did accept the welfare schemes of the

Britisher as it is against their core value of being subservient

to a foreign rulers and on the other hand the Britisher were

interested only in suppressive this rebellious tribes rather

than their upliftment and above all the schemes were

imposed by the outsiders who had very little knowledge

about the structure and functions of Piramalai Kallars who

are true aboriginals till date. After independence as

explained supra and infra, no special schemes for this

victims of brutal imperial suppression rather even schemes

implemented by the Britishers were withdrawn and the result

is the Piramalai Kallars become extremely backward in all

respects.


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Chapter V

PRESENT STATUS

OF THE PIRAMALAI KALLAR TRIBE

Social Status

If all the pathetic social conditions of the Piramalai

Kallar are submitted here no average person can

continuously read without breaking down. It is true that

various other communities were meted out with extreme

injustice and hardship but certainly that the scale and style,

depth and width of the suffering of the Piramalai Kallars.

The fact that despite documentation of large number of well

intentioned human being about the pathetic socio-economic

conditions, none of the policy makers and the government

wanted to take affective affirmative action to improve the

social-economic conditions of these primitive tribes. Perhaps,

it is one of the largest living, open museum of Human

Suffering, injustice and heart rending living conditions.

However, in this report only to meet the so called official

indicators the data on the socio Economic Conditions of the


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Piramalai Kallar has been compiled from the State, District

and Block level statistical hand book. Though the Piramalai

Kallars are living mainly in Madurai, Theni, and Dindigul and

to some extent in Virudunagar District and also in various

Piramalai Kallar settlements near Kanchipuram, the living

conditions of all the Piramalai Kallars are more are less

same except the geographical differences. As there is no

caste wise census, it would be most pertinent to take the vital

statistics of Usilampatti Block as representative statistics of

Piramalai Kallars and compare the same with the District,

State and All India state to assess the present conditions of

the Piramalai Kallars. The data were compiled mainly from

the published secondary sources of Government of

Tamilnadu, Statistical Department, and primary data

collected through filed survey by trained social investigators

and published in leading papers and Magazines and a few

personal story of the worst victims of social backwardness

and discrimination are also taken from the secondary

sources and duly acknowledged.

Table -2

COMPARATIVE VITAL SOCIO-ECONOMIC INDIACATORS


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Sl.

No. Vital Socio-Economic Indicators

Piramalai

Kallar

Madurai

District

Tamil

Nadu India

1

Density (Population per Sq.Kms)

(2011 Census)

247 823 555 382

2

Decadal Growth Rate (2011

Census) 18 17.95 15.6 17.6

3

Sex Ratio ( Females per 1000

Males) (2011 Census)

936 990 995 940

4 percentage of Urban population 32 60.64 48.45 31.2

5 Birth Rate - 2011 (SRS) 18 17.2 15.9 21.8

6 Death rate - 2011 (SRS) 7.5 6.6 7.4 7.1

7 Infant Mortality Rate -2011(SRS) 31 21.2 22 44

8 Maternal Mortality Rate -2011 (SRS) 1.7 1.7

9 Literacy Rate - 2011 64.2 81.66 80.3 74Source : Usilapmatti Block, Statistical Handbook 2011-2012, Madurai Dt and

Tamilnadu Statistical Hand Book 2013.

An analysis of the vital statistics of the Piramalai Kallar with

the rest of the population of India as shown in Table 1 reveals that

as the land settled by the highly dry and only 30 % of the land is

under cultivation, the population density is not as high as in the

rest of the district of Madurai where it is 823 per Sq.Kms but the

same is only 287 per Sq.Kms which less than the All India figure

of 382 per Sq.Kms and which demonstrates that this region is one

of the most backward region and hostile conditions for human

living with result the concentration of the people is less and above

all another reason for this phenomena of thin concentration of

population is as there is no employment opportunities large


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number of people have migrated to other District and States in

search of jobs and livelihood. The following figure-1 shall depict

the comparison better.

Figure -1

Source : Usilapmatti Block, Statistical Handbook 2011-2012, Madurai Dt and

Tamilnadu Statistical Hand Book 2013.

As far as population growth is concerned despite

prevalence of foeticide and infanticide, the population is


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higher mainly due to illiteracy and other social and economic

facts such as poor economic conditions etc.

Figure -2

Source : Usilapmatti Block, Statistical Handbook 2011-2012, Madurai

Dt and Tamilnadu Statistical Hand Book 2013.

The sex ratio among the Primalai Kallar is one of the

lowest in the whole countries that too in a state where it is

more than 995 whreas in it is only 936 in the Usilampatti

Block where is in another Bclok were also the poplution of

Pramalai Kallr is more than 85 per cent, the sex ratio is

only 904. The reason for the lowest sex ratio is mainly due

to very low social status to women among the Piramalai


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Kallars, though orginally as in any other Tribes women

were given equal status in all respect but due to advrese

conditions in which this tribes were made to live, the

practice of dowry system and extreme poverty , has lead

to degenration of the value sytem and all the anger

against the main stream society due to continued

discrimination and illtreatment, and the entire budren of

unjust historical anger, are vent upon the women of

Piramalai Kallars and the level of suffering of Prmalai

Kallar of women is such that it is extermely challanging to

be born as second girl child in the Prmalai Kallar Tribes

and compelete full cycle of life even as a first girl child

because due to social backwardness number of savage

practives are still continued.

Figure -3


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Source : Usilapmatti Block, Statistical Handbook 2011-2012, Madurai

Dt and Tamilnadu Statistical Hand Book 2013.

One such Practice is female infenticides and foeticide

which has been well documented by the UNICEF and

Inidan Counsel for Child Welfare. The female infendicite

is a practice where only the first girl child would be

spared. If the family bears another girl child, the milky sap

from an Oleander (Yerukkum) shrub or Cactus (Kalli)

plant will be squeezed, mixed with castor oil and fed into

the newborn's throat. and number of other motheds.

Female infant mortality rate (defined as mortality in the

first year per 1,000 females born) in in Madurai it was 70

and the figure in respect of the whole of Tamil Nadu was


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44.3. Specifically, the early neo-natal female mortality rate

(that is, death within six days of birth) in Madurai it was

43.4; and the State average was 24 during 1986.

Several sociological factors influence the preference

for male children that is at the root of female infanticide

and female foeticide. The heart-rending tale of

Thedaselvam exemplifies some of them. Frail and

anaemic, she had tried to abort her five-month-old foetus

but her husband, who had lost both his legs in an

accident, had prevented her. His overriding concern was

that if she died owing to complications arising from an

improper abortion, there would be no one to look after him

and their eight-year-old son and six-year-old daughter: the

family survives on the Rs.15 a day that Thedaselvam

earns as a farm labourer. But Thedaselvam asked

tearfully, "What will I do if this too is a girl? The

expenditure we incur on a girl all through her life is

enormous (there are six occasions on which ceremonies

are to be performed for a girl). (Frontline

NVESTIGATION: Scanning for death:In a region in Tamil

Nadu where female infanticide is endemic, increasing


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instances of foeticide employing modern tools of medical

technology raise a range of questions by ASHA

KRISHNAKUMAR in Usilampatti Vol. 15 :: No. 25 :: Dec.

05 - 18, 1998)

Cradle babies of Piramalai Kallar Calotropis plant : POISONOUS SAP USED TO KILLFETUS

Apopular but crude and primitive abortion method

adopted by the traditional midwives involves killing a fetus

with the poisonous sap of the Calotropis plant that grows

wild in the state.The mid-vein of an overripe leaf of the

plant is carefully cut out with a pair of scissors.

The tip of the stiff vein is dipped into the sap squeezed out

from a fleshy leaf of the plant. A thin strip of gauze is

wound tightly around the tip of the vein and dipped again

into the sap. It is then inserted into the pregnant womans

vagina. Unhygienic, crude methods of abortions can

cause serious medical complications to women. It could


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rupture and infect the uterus.The entire reproductive

system of the affected woman can go for a toss.

Better for her to die now

Chinnammalwith her first daughter who was allowed to live

Normally, the day should have been one of great

rejoicing for 35-year-old Kuppusamy and his 26-year-old

wife Chinnammal, both agricultural workers in Chulive-

chanpatti village in the Usilampatti taluk of Madurai

district. It was a May morning of sparkling sunshine and

Chinnammal, attractive and slim despite her pregnancy,

was in labour inside her mud-and-thatch hut. In a few

minutes her second child would be born. Her first,

daughter Chellammal, 3, played outside.


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The new-born cried lustily as it came into this world. It

was a bonny child, fair of complexion, its eyes, squinting

at the sunlight that filtered in. But when the mother laid

eyes on her baby, tears welled up in her eyes. They were

not tears of joy. Chinnammal had .seen the sex of the

child: a girl. What crossed her mind was not the

anticipation of the joys of motherhood but the trials that

lay ahead. How could a family of daily-wage agricultural

workers belonging to the Kallar group of the Thevar

community afford to bring up and marry off two

daughters? How could they, when thedowry demanded by

bridegrooms was always astronomical? The couple had

decided to have a second child only in the desperate hope

that it would be a boy. But on this sunny day, the dream

lay shattered.

There was only one way out of a lifetime burden of

bringing up two daughters. And Kuppusamy decided on

what they had to do. That evening he trudged

somewhat unsteadily into a nearby field, plucked a

handful of oleander berries that are known for their lethal

poison, and returned home. Chinnammal mashed them


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into a milky paste and fed her crying infant with the

substance. The parents then shut the small door of their

hut, sat outside, and waited for the poison to do its work.

Within an hour the baby began to twitch and tremble

fitfully. Slowly she started spouting blood through her

mouth and nose. The parents heard her whining. A few

more minutes, and all was quiet. Chinnammal knew that

everything was over. She quietly walked over to her

mother's hut close by, dug up a little patch of ground

inside, brought and buried the dead baby.

Poisonous oleander berries used to kill baby girls

I killed my child to save it from the lifelong ignominy of

being the daughter of a poor family that cannot afford to


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pay a decent dowry, Chinnammal said, as she sipped

water to keep her voice from breaking. But all the same,

it was extremely difficult to steel myself for the act. A

mother who has borne a child cannot bear to see it suffer

even for a little while, let alone bring herself to kill it. But I

had to do it, because my husband and I concluded that it

was better to let our child suffer an hour or two and die

than suffer throughout life. Kuppusamy, at first reluctant

to talk, admitted later during an interview: I get Rs 13 a

day as agricultural wages, on the days that I manage to

find work. My wife gets Rs 6 a day. I cannot dream of

decently marrying off two daughters. Killing girl babies

due to fear of the dowry problem is very common in our

Kallar community.

Thus insulated from the scrutiny of government

officials, politicians and social workers, the Kallars of

Usilampatti remain the prisoners of their burdensome,

savage traditions. By S. H. Venkatramani - Born to Die -

Female Infanticide published inIndia Todayvol 31, 15

(June 1986) 26-33.

We have no money to keep our daughters alive


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Annamal, 35, now a mother of five killed her first three

daughters. "I had to kill," she says. "We believed if wekilled a female the next child would be a male."

Gender disparity manifests itself in several other ways

in a patriarchal society and contributes to the shaping of a

mindset that perceives girl children as a "burden". Thus in

1992, the State Government acknowledged for the first

time the seriousness of the problem of female infanticide.

It introduced several schemes, including one under which

parents could abandon "unwanted" girl babies in cradles

kept in noon meal centres, primary health centres and

orphanages; the babies would then be brought up in

State-run orphanages. About 50 babies were thus found

abandoned in Usilampatti. But the scheme fizzled out

because many babies that were "adopted" by the State


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died. According to data compiled by the Social Welfare

Department, 133 babies were found abandoned in cradles

in Usilampatti and Salem between 1992 and 1996. Of

these 70 died. Another scheme, under which the State

Government was to invest Rs.2,000 in the name of every

girl child born in poor households, was not implemented

until 1997.

Table - 3

Times of India, Chennai (times city P-8) Sep 24 2011

In a filed study conducted by SIRD an NGO in Madurai

has reveal that the practice of dowry and practice of


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foeticide and infanticide is worst than the Dalits and other

communities.

Table -4

The Prevalence of Dowry and Infanticide among Piramalai Kallars

Name of the

Community

Dowry Harassment Practice ofFoeticide/

Infanticide

Yes No Yes No

Piramalai

Kallar

24 33 48 9

Dalit 12 27 27 12

Other castes 7 17 4 20

Source: Jeeva, M; Gandhimathi and Phavalam : Female Infanticide: Philosophy, Perspective and concern of SIRD - search Bulletin.

July-Sept. 1998. 13(3). P.9-17.

Of the 57 Piramalai Kallar respondents suveyed, 48

shared that they were, Practicing Female Infenticide i.e 86

per cent and among dailts it is only 69 per cent. Simarly

the dowry harrasess ment also more among the Piramalai

Kallars 42 per cent and among dalist it is only 31 per cent

Thus the social backwardness is very serve in the case of

Piramalai Kallar than the Dalits. As a result the sex ratio

is lowest in India.

The populous of the Piramalai Kallars are predominantly

living in rural area. Despite rapid urbanization in the

Madurai District and Tamilnadu during the last decade

two decade from 1991 to 2011, the Usilamptii Block


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witnessed only a marginal increase in Urbanization.

However large number of them have migrated to various

cities of India as far as Jammu in the north and Assam in

the East, mostly engaing in mobile Dosa shop woking

through out the day and struggling to compete with the

large scale hotels.

Figure -4

Source : Usilapmatti Block, Statistical Handbook 2011-2012, Madurai Dt andTamilnadu Statistical Hand Book 2013.

Besides the general to the bacwardness of Piramalai

Kallars in these vital indicators, the Piramalai Kallars are


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look down with contempt evry one in other comminity and

the government mechinary mainly due to the stigma of

Criminal Tribes. The Police offficer had a baise against

the Piramalai Kallars were ever they live, large number of

false cases are filed and put to unbearable torcher and in

some cases, they force them to indulge in criminal

activities. As the level of education of the Piramalai

Kallars are not sufficient to get them a job in the market

the lumpen elelment use them in all kind of criminal

activities and they had no other optition but the fall prey to

such a exploitation. Even durng the recruitments of

various services of central and state goverements on

reading the caste name of the individuals, they are

rejected without assiging any reasons mainly due the

brand of the criminal Tribes. There are number of

individual stories that highly meritorious individuals are

denied jobs on the the ground of being criminal tribes

whereas their mediocare counterpart from other parts

were able to get the lucarative jobs. The Home

Department of Madras Presidency compliled the socio-

economic status of all criminal tribes in the year 1939

and the same is enclosed as Appendix. Out of 89 criminal


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tribes, all most all of them were able to get over the

burden of the past by successfully improving their social

and ecomonic status because of a host of advandagious

factors i.e. i) the CT Act itself was not imposed in the

entire community as vigoraously as in the case of

Piramalai Kallars, ii) their livelihood was not deprived off;

iii) they were already in the take off stage in respect of

economic empowerment; iv) they are not tribals and they

had been already integrated in the main stream societies

whereas the Piramalai Kallars as a unique tribes and

original aboriginals dispite their best effort to emulate the

main stream culture, they failed mainly due to their core

value of each individual being a sovereign power and

unable to accept the unjust pattern of the main stream

society and the quality of tolerence to the ambiquity is

also all most absent among the Piramalai Kallars. Though

aparantly seemed to the rude and uncivilized but there is

fine threat of respect for justice and primitive communisim

and judicious humanism in every walk of the Piramalai

Kallars and they have built structurally rigid and

functionally flexcible social institutions along with change

in continuity but which require a special skill to understand


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and the main stream society failed to understand their

unique culture and value system and rejected them as

socially unfit and the result is vicious cycle of rejection-

rebellion process and the outcome is they are lacking

behind in the race to modernisation and social-economic

advancement. Therefore affirmative action by

constutitional safeguard shall go long way in mitigation the

suffering of the Piramalai Kallars and integration with main

stream while preserving their unique culture.

Economic Status

The mainstay of the Piramalai Kallar economy is

agriculture. The landholding size of the farmers among

the Piramalai Kallars is so small that it is impossible to

undertake any commercial agriculture and thus the entire

economy is subsistence economy. In fact, the concept of

private property is alien to them even during the early part

of the 20th century and whence everyone worked in the

field and everyone was allowed to enjoy the produce and

thus there was a kind of absolute primitive communism.

But after the imposition of CT Act their entire livihood

pattern is damaged irrevocably and forced to be asset


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less, skill less phycical labour. The deprival is so much so

that many of them could even affort to have hue/an

equipment to work in the filed and thus left unemployed or

to look for deviant way of living. The following table shall

reveal that the all most 99 percent of the farmers are

small farmers and out this another 65 per cent have only

less that one acre of the land which is not cacapable for

producing any surplus produce for market and thus they

are outside the reach of market.

Table-5

Size of Farm Holding (in acres) amongPiramalai Kallars

S.no.

size of farms (in

Acres) Number of Farmers percentage

1 0.50-1 17990 65.06

2 1-2 3926 14.20

3 2-3 4356 15.75

4 3-4 878 3.18

5 4-5 264 0.95

6 5-6 108 0.39

7 6-7 90 0.33

8 7.5-10 18 0.07

9 10-20 18 0.07

10 above 20 4 0.01

Total 27652 100.00

Source : Usilapmatti Block, Statistical Handbook 2011-2012, Madurai Dt.

Figure -5


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Source : Usilapmatti Block, Statistical Handbook 2011-2012, Madurai Dt.

As there is no institutional credit support to these farmers

even to plough the land they had to depend onmany lender. The

money lenders inturn plough their lives and treat them as salves.

The following table of socio economic indicators of Piramalai

Kallars demonstrates that they are in the lower rung of the

development. Of the total population 59.2 per cent are workers

and among the women 46.1 per cent are in the work force which is

highest in the country. These labours also engage only in

agricultural activities, of the total workers 81.8 per cent of them are


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agricultural workers in contrast with negligible figure of 2.5 per cent

in manufacturing industries. As stated earlier no single industries

worth mention in the regions of the Piramalai Kallars and as the

agriculture also mostly rain fed and the ground water level has

also been depleted beyond recharge, the there is large scale

migration to eke out their living. As most of them are unskilled,

they are employed only as unskilled labours in various

plantation/mining/spinning units. Another pathetic phenomena is

duly to extreme poverty, the children are made to work on the farm

and off the farm at a tender age depriving their childhood rights

and in worst cases, they are lent for few hundreds to work in

various household snag manufacturing industries and where the

children are being forced to work for more than 20 years without

rest and without adequate and sleep. In fact, if all the true story of

these unfortunate children are written perhaps we shall become

sleepless forever because indeed along with frying the snags they

are being virtually fried and at time their limbs and at some other

time their bodies are also fried and all these suffering is alas only

in the fond hope of survival. Inaddition to the above in terms of the

infrastructural development also they are lacking behind in all

respect.


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Table-6

SOCIO-ECONOMIC INDIACATORS OF PIRAMALAI KALLARS

Sl.

No. Socio-Economic Indicators

Piramalai

Kallar

1 Average size of household 3.4

2 Percentage of workers to total population 59.2

3 Percentage of female workers to total workers 46.1

4

Percentage of agricultural Labourer to total

labourars 81.8

5 Percentage of workers in Manufacturing industries 2.5

6 Percentage of small and marginal farmer 95

7 percentage of net are sown to total geographical area 32.28

8 Number of post office per thousand population 0.39

9 Number of letter box 9510 Number of residential telephone 654

11 Number of Nationalized bank 5

12 Number of scheduled Bank 1

13 Number of Primary Agricultural cooperative bank 5

14 Noon meal centers 88

Source : Usilapmatti Block, Statistical Handbook 2011-2012,

Madurai Dt

Political StatusAs the Piramalai Kallar is concentrating with winnable

majority in only one constitution i.e. Usilampatti constituency with

over 2,11,000 voters and since all along they have been voting

only for the candidates of All India Forward Bloc , they remain

political orphan because the All India Forward Bloc never find any

representation in the council of Ministers . In other constituency of

Madurai, Dindigul and Theni districts comprising nearly 30

constituencies they are present very significantly but they could not


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mobilize successfully to make their representation effective.

Indeed, no representative of Piramalai Kallar had ever taken part

in the decision making process either in legislature or in the

executives. The participation of Piramalai Kallars in the higher

administration is almost absent except one or two second/third

generation individuals. The same is the case in Group A, Group B,

Group C and Group D Services of both the central and state

governments and only mode of assured job was recruitment in

Kallar Reclamation as teachers in clerks numbering over 500

vacancies and as stated supra this also has been discontinued

after 1999. Thus on the whole over 40 lakhs people of Piramalai

Kallars remain as powerless, voiceless, asset less and lifeless.

Educational StatusAs explained earlier, though the Piramalai Kallars had evolved

various robust social institutions, they could not evolve any system

of educational institutions not even a dormitory type among the

Piramalai Kallars. As a result the remained mostly illiterate till

1920s when after the establishment of schools exclusively for

Piramalai Kallars under the Kallars Reclamation Scheme and

some well intentioned Christian Missionary Schools in the Regions


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of Piramalai Kallars, the rays of modern education spread into the

Piramalai Kallar Nadu.

Table - 7

Literacy rate among Kallars as per 1921 census

Sex Population Literacy Percentage

Men 259428 42223 16

Women 274544 144 0.1

Total 533972 43665 8

Source: Venkatasamy Nattar, N,.M. KallarSarithiram, Jeyam & Co, Trich irappalli, 1923, P 136.

However, the table of data above reveals that the literacy

among the women was almost zero and the overall literacy is only

8 per cent but this is also not true reflection of Piramalai Kallars

education status because the data includes more advances Kallars

of other regions also.

In fact the Britishers thrust of welfare measures was on

educating the Piramalai Kallars and the first mission mode project

of Kallar Reclamations schools were established at end 1940 there

were 60 schools but after 60 years of Independence the number of

school for Piramalai Kallars are very few. For a population of 1.5


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lakhs in Usilampatti Block there are only 7 High schools and 6

Higher Secondary Schools.

Table-8

Number of Schools for a Population of morethan 1.5 lakhs for Usilampatti Block

Piramalai Kallars in 2011

S.No. Level of schools

Number of

Schools

Total trained and

non-trained

teachers

1 Pre-primary schools 5 26

2 Primary Schools 64 201

3 Middle Schools 20 183

4 High Schools 7 198

5 Higher Secondary Schools 6 78

6 Matriculation Schools 4 73


Madurai Dt

Even in these schools most of the teachers are non-trained

and thus there is no quality education and the infrastructural

facilities also very poor as funds are not allotted from the main

accounts of department of education but from the Kallar

reclamation scheme for whom only very nominal fund is allotted

and 90 % of the funds are used against only the revenue

expenditure and thus no new schools/building/hostels and not

even repair and renovation works are taken in time as a result

number of buildings have become beyond economical repair. Thus

even now the level of literacy is less than the national, state and


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district average and the glaring contrast con be seen between the

Piramalai Kallars and District literacy levels. Similarly the ratio of

higher education among the Piramalai Kallars is also appalling.

Figure -6


Madurai Dt

Health Status

In all the indictors of the health viz. longevity, morbidity,

mortality, infant mortality, maternal mortality, and patient doctor

ratio etc. the Piramalai Kallars are extremely backward mainly due

to social and cultural backwardness and partly due to poor health

and sanitation facilities in the regions of Piramalai Kallars. The


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Infant mortality rate in the region is much less than the healthy

figures of a healthy state and district as depicted in the following

figures.

Figure -7


Madurai Dt

Over all Status

An objective study of various socio-economic indicators

discussed supra manifestly reveals that the Piramalai Kallars are

in the bottom scale of all the indicators and above all due to their

socio-economic backwardness they have been leading an

inhuman life and they are not only victims of the so called purity-

pollution principle but also the heavy burden of imagined, invented


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and imposed criminal tribes indelible social stigma and

consequent discrimination in every walk of life in general and in

jobs and social participation in particular.

Therefore immediate statutory intervention is required to

integrate them into the main stream society and have rightful place

in the larger society.

Chapter - V

DENIAL, DEPRIVAL AND DIGRESS

OF PIRAMALAI KALLAR TRIBE


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A) Withdrawal/abandonment/d ivers ion of welfare

measures/institutional mechanism of Piramalai Kallar

Tribe.

i) The Kallar Reclamation schemes were not

increased in proportion to the growth in other

schools.

ii) The Kallar Reclamations was not provided with

adequate fund even to run the day to day

administration.

iii) Many schools and Hostels opened exclusively for

Piramalai Kallars were abandoned.

iv) Vide GO. M.S 1310 dated 30.7.1979 of social

welfare department, government of Tamilnadu

the nomenclature of Denotified Criminal Tribes

was changed to Denotified Community.

v) Vide GO. M.S. 28 dated 19.07.1994 of the

backward class and Most backward class


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department the Christian Piramalai Kallars were

denied to be treated as DNT.

vi) Vide GO 7 dated 15.2.1999 of the backward

class and Most backward class department has

denied the claim of appointing only persons

belonging to Piramalai Kallar as Teachers in

Kallar Reclamation Schools and rather imposed

the communal roster in the recruitment to be

made in the Kallar Reclamation department.

vii) The state government abandoned the Amatchiya

Puram via railway line to Usilampatti Taluk

major irrigation project from Vaigai Dam.

viii) The Thirumangalam Main canal irrigation

projected was diverted from its original plan and

deprived the major irrigation facilities of major

portion of the Piramalai Kallars Community.

ix) The demanded of Pappapatti 58 villages

irrigation project was denied for 4 decades and


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under implementation for 2 decade without any

hope of ever delivering single drop of water into

this dry regions.

x) Even the portion of Piramalai Kallar land being

irrigated through Vaigai Dam is not released as

per entitlement and only when there is surplus, it

is released and there is no equitable distribution

of the available water.

xi) The Special Kallar co-operative societies are

abandoned.

xii) The voluntary Kallar fund was also wound up.

xiii) The employment bureau established under the

Kallar Reclamation Scheme has been abolished.

xiv) The service entitlement card issued to the

Piramalai Kallar has also been discontinued.

B) Discriminate action of the State Machinery and

Human Rights Violation against Piramalai Kallar

Tribe.


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The systemic and institutional discrimination against

the Piramalai Kallars are appalling and deplorable.

Though the CT Act has been abolished long back still the

ghost of the social stigma hunts the youth of Piramalai

Kallars, they are forced by the police to indulge in criminal

activities and thereafter they are booked under various

server section of IPC and other special and local laws

offences and in many case without any justification they

were also killed in the police custody and the so called the

encounter murders. Only on knowing that a person is from

Piramalai Kallar community how so ever that person is

noble in action and thought, still that person is looked

down and kept as a suspect and in most case booked as

criminal by the police with impunity. Thus, there is large

scale human rights violation day in day out in the present

milieu.

Apart from the police atrocities, even in various direct

recruitments the Piramalai Kallar tribes candidates are

given very less marks despite having their exemplary

performance mainly due to biased and prejudice psychic

of the persons from other community which is also mainly

due to misconception about the Piramalai Kallars ethos


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and value system. One such incidence is one Suruli of

Kalapanpatti of Uslimpatti taluk was a C certificate holder,

gold medalist in mechanical Engineering, having cleared

SSB selection in short service commission, he was

rejected and he could not find a job in the state

government also, whereas his class mates who had clear

the degree after many years were also able to get

lucrative post in the state but he could content with only a

post in Highways department and retire from the lower

rung of the serve. Such stories of discrimination and

maltreatment are many to be accounted. This

discrimination is not confined to only in the state

machinery but also in all public sectors be it Railways,

Post, Telegraph, EB, Nationalized Banks, Public Sector

Undertaking of central and state governments.

C) Social discrimination and abusing the people of Piramalai

Kallar.

The magnitude and scale of discrimination suffered by

the Piramalai Kallars are enormous and immeasurable

and in any case, certainly more than the discrimination of

the schedule caste and scheduled tribes because as

stated supra the incidence and impact of discrimination


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against the SCs are mainly on account of the unjust caste

system but the incidence and impact of discrimination of

Piramalai Kallars are many fold in all respect of life and

both temporal and contemporary. Above all, the

discrimination is both internal and external because as

they are true aboriginals they cannot abandon their

cultural values immediately and adopt the so called

modern values which is unjust whereas the SCs have

abandon all the so called polluting practices and readily

embraced the modern values and secondly among all the

communities only among the Piramalai Kallars the

women and children are worst victims of the both internal

and external discrimination. Thus the Piramalai Kallars

symbolize the epitome of the discrimination and only

through constitutional safeguard, they can be rescued.


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Chapter - VI

ACTIONS/SCHEMES PROPOSED FOR THE

IMPROVEMENT OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC AND

EDUCATIONAL STATUS OF THE PIRAMALAI

KALLAR TRIBE

As submitted supra the people of Piramalai Kallar Tribes are

lacking behind in all respect of life, the a holistic, effective and

specific legislative and policy measures needs to be taken to

improve their socio-economic status and thus the following

proposals are submitted for the kind consideration of the High

Level Committee for strong recommendation to the central

Government for immediate implementation.

a) Legislative measures.

1. As the Piramalai Kallar Tribes meet all the criteria of a

schedule Tribes, the High Level committee should

recommend to the Government to issue presidential

notification to include the Piramalai Kallar Tribes as

Schedule Tribes under Article 342 of the Constitution

of India and extent all the benefits as being extend to

the schedule Tribes.


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2. As the DNT constitute 15 crore population of India,

they should be treated as specially disadvantaged

groups, accordingly the constitution of India should

amended to incorporate this section of people as a

special category and insert the word DNT after the

words SC/ST wherever it appears especially in Article

15, 16, 17, 46, 243, 244, 300 to 342 and 371, schedule

V of the constitution of India.

3. The nomenclature of Piramalai Kallars should be

changed as Piramalai Aboriginals (Piramalai Athikudi

in Tamil).

4. The state government should give 5 % reservation to

DNT as given by Maharashtra to Vimukthi Jati.

5. The area of the DNT should be declared as scheduled

area and included in the Schedule V of the Constitution

of India in all states and the article 371 should be

amended to include special status to the scheduled

area of DNT of Tamilnadu also included in the Article

371 of the constitution of India.


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6. The SC/ST(Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989 should

be amended as suggested by the National commission

of DNT to include DNT also under the protection

umbrella of the said Act that will go a long way in

preventing serious human rights violation against the

DNT due to aged old Stigma and preconceived

notions.

7. All the discriminative laws like Habitual Offenders Act

etc, which are having adverse impact on the lives and

livelihood of the DNT should be repealed/amended

immediately because existence of such anarchic law is

against the mandate of the Constitution of India and

various UN declaration on the rights of Primitive and

Indigenous Tribes.

b) Policy Measures

1. As stated above due to change of nomenclature

of the Primitive and indigenous Tribes in General

and Piramalai Kallar Tribes in particular has let to

deprival of various legislative and welfare

entitlement of these backward tribes because the

Government of India vide its GO MS 1310 dated


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30.07.1979 of Social Welfare Department has

issued that the word Tribe shall not be used for

the Denotified, Nomadic and semi nomadic

Tribes in future and Instead they shall be called

as the Denotified, Nomadic and Semi-nomadic

Communities only. This has been done mainly

relying on the Government of India, Ministry of

Home Affairs letters No. 11019/18/78- SCT V

dated 4.11.78 and No. BC. 11026/2/79 SC BCD

III dated 20.03.1979. Above all the reason cited

for such decision is patently illegal, perverse and

prima facie the political malice is writ large on the

face of the said GO 1310 because after all the

said national commission has only emphasized

that besides SC/ST there are 258 communities

throughout the country and only these

communities are called Backward class and in

the report written it has used the word the

community instead of Tribes and at any rate that

does not mean it has directed the stated

government to issue GO changing the

nomenclature of these Tribes. Therefore the


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central government immediately issue policy

letter withdrawing the above mentioned Ministry

of Home Affairs letter if any and direct the

concerned state governments to withdraw such a

mischievous GOs forthwith.

2. All the central and state government policy on

the legislative and welfare aspect of DNT must

be consolidated and a National Policy on DNT

must be redrawn keeping in view various rights

recognized by the various International Bodies.

3. The policy of the central and state government

must be widely published and all the stock

holders such as Government Machineries, Civil

Societies and the people of concerned Tribes.

4. A separate Website should hosted by the both

the central and state government disclosing all

the policy measures of the government.

5. The Government should involve all the

communities of the DNT at all stage of policy

formulation, implementation and evaluation so

that it does not destroy their age old rich culture

and heritage and at the same time keep them


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advance in all respect of life according to the

time.

c) Insti tutional set up.1. As recommended by the National Commission

for DNT and accepted by NAC and Technical

Group of the Ministry of tribal Welfare a

Permanent statutory Commission should be

established at national level and state level to

protect the rights of the DNT and monitor the

measures being taken by the governments to

improve the status of the NDT,

2. Separate Ministry of the DNT Welfare should be

created at the central and state government to

implement various special programmes for the

DNT.

3. National and state level financial Corporation

with adequate seed capital should be established

to finance various enterprise of the DNT people.

d) Reservation measures


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1. All the reservation benefits extend to STs should

be extend to DNT by including them the ST.

2. Alternatively all the DNT should be treated as a

special group and reservation should be provided

in central and state government services, public

Sectors companies, Banks, Private companies

etc.

3. The Reservation benefits in promotion also

should be extended to DNT.

4. Above all there should reservation to DNT in the

judiciary including in the lower judiciary and

higher judiciary and in prosecution agencies.

5. Only teachers belonging to Piramalai Kallar tribes

should be appointed as Teachers in the Schools

run by the Kallar Reclamation so that the unique

culture of the Piramalai Kallar is preserved which

has been appreciated as the best system by all

the sociologist of the world.

6. There should be reservation in representative

bodies to DNT such as in Lok Shaba, Rajaya


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Shaba, State legislative assembly, counsel and

Local Bodies

e) Educational Schemes

1. As there is no higher educational institutions of

over a million population of one Taluk in Madurai

Distric

Pk DNT Draft Anna

Documents

Transcript of Pk DNT Draft Anna