ATTAPPADI: Two weeks have passed since schools opened for the new academic year, yet dozens of tribal children in Attappadi are yet to return to their classrooms.
Their absence is not due to illness or lack of interest in education.
Instead, it stems from a heartbreaking reality: their families don’t even have the money to sew school uniforms from fabric provided by the government for free.
In Agali Government LPS alone, at least 26 students have not attended classes this year even though they have received uniform clothes. The situation is no different in several tribal villages in Pudur and Sholayur panchayats, where families are struggling to survive amid a prolonged delay in disbursement of wages under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).
“For hundreds of tribal families, the employment guarantee scheme is the only reliable source of income. However, wages have remained unpaid for the past five months, pushing the already vulnerable communities into greater financial distress,” MGNREGA officials said.
Apart from the 100 days of work guaranteed by the Union government, the state government had promised 100 days of wages to the tribal people here. A day’s work can reach 369 rupees.
“We get ration of rice, wheat, sugar and kerosene. But we don’t even have the income to cook a good curry or sabji for our children,” says Bindu, from the Kurumba community, as she joined 55 other women at the meeting from the Pudur panchayat to explain the delay in payments.
