Government New Lower Primary School in soup as fishermen refugees have nowhere to go

ALAPPUZHA: A sea erosion two years ago uprooted the houses of 15 people belonging to nine fishermen families. How-ever, authorities who provided them a ‘temporary’ shelter at the Government New LPS, Purakad, have failed to provide them a permanent home. As a result, the dislocated people have stayed put at the school affecting the academic life of students. The school, which is the only government Lower Primary school in the panchayat, has 160 students from pre-primary to Class V, a majority of them belonging to fishermen community.

Teachers and peoples’ representatives had urged the authorities to take steps to rehabilitate these families, but to no avail. N.K. Prasananna Ku-mari, the school headmistress fears for safety of students as the displaced people are always at school. She said they couldn’t lock the school gate when the classes are held as the people are in school all the time. Stray dogs are another worry for the school authorities as they always enter through the open gate. The displaced people use at least four LPG cylinders to cook food during class hours in the classroom.

“We fear a day when students may uncap a cylinder when they come across one. A hall of the school  building has been completely set aside for these families, but the refugees keep hanging their laundry on the clothesline in the classroom. They use children’s bathrooms and toilets. This could create health issues for children. A minor disruption can affect their attention as they are minors,” she pointed out.

Citing an incident that occurred two weeks ago, the headmistress recalled that a woman inmate left entire school terror-stricken when she went out of her mind and ran amok like a possessed individual. “The situation lasted for two hours during school time shocking students. After that incident, many parents complained that their children were waking up from bed at midnight with nightmares,” the teacher said.

“We are ready to go, but have no place to go to,” laments Sasikala Purushan, 55, who has been staying there for two years. “All politicians including ministers are aware of our plight. We were promised during election that we will be rehabilitated in six months of coming to power. But nothing has happened so far,” she said.

Maheswari, 47, another refugee pointed out that they were aware that they had became a liability for the school. “We don’t have cash to rent a house. We are living on the meagre income of husbands who are fishermen. That’s why we continue to live here. If the authorities set up a small facility anywhere in the panchayat, we are ready leave. We agree that that it’s important to preserve academic atmosphere of school,” she said.

Meanwhile, the houses of these inmates were built under the Tsunami Rehabilitation project. However, they said they would be lucky if they could live in those houses at least for a year. They believe that illegal sand mining in Thottappally led to the unprecedented sea erosion. Rahmath Hamid, president, Purakkad panchayat, said they were complaining to authorities over the issue for a long time. “We are all aware of the issue, but the situation of inmates is also pitiable. We think the school shouldn’t be used as a rehabilitation centre. The district administration should immediately find a solution,” he said.

According to president, as many as 90 families are currently homeless in the district. Out of this, many are living in the homes of their relatives or rented homes. Meanwhile, the number of people losing homes  due to sea erosion is rising. As per data available with Purakad panchayat, in 2013 there were eight families who lost their home while in 2014 the number rose to 11. In 2015, the number rose to 39. Though the season of sea erosion is yet to commence, this year the number of families who lost their houses touched 22.