Four young children satisfied their hunger by eating soil that mingled with their tears! Inside a shanty, two starving babies sucked their mother's breasts that stopped giving milk because she had nothing to eat.
This was the sight that greeted a team of government officials as they came to visit a shack located just a kilometre away from the government secretariat in Kerala's capital, Thiruvananthapuram.
With folded hands, Sreedevi, the helpless mother, handed over four of her six children to the Child Welfare Society, an eyesore to the picture of comprehensive social welfare that Kerala boasts about.
The family lived in a shack at the railway wasteland near Uppilaamood Bridge. Six children, aged between three months to 7 years, lived inside the shack that was covered by a flex-covered roof. Their story was brought to the attention of the Kerala State Council for Child Welfare by some people who came to know about them.
As the team from the child welfare department, led General Secretary S.P. Deepak, came to visit them, they found the eldest boy eating soil, unable to tolerate hunger. The boy said his siblings too eat soil—dirt of the city blown with dust and litter.
The youngest children, aged three months and one-and-half years, were crying on Sreedevi's lap in their shanty.
When asked about their father, the children said with fear that when he came home, he would beat them and their mother too. Kunjumon, their father, climbed trees for a living. The team found marks of his abuse on the bodies of the children.
Narrating her suffering due to her alcoholic husband and lack of aid from the state government or corporation, Sreedevi wept before them. There had been little support for the family from the Life Mission of the government of Kerala.
The child welfare team immediately brought food for all the family members. The mother begged the team to take care of her children so that, at least, they can get food regularly. After completing legal procedures, the child welfare team returned on Monday afternoon to to take the two boys, aged seven and five years, and the girls, aged four and two-and-half years. The boys are attending school.
After their story became a topic of discussion in Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram Mayor K. Sreekumar reached the spot and offered Sreedevi a temporary post at the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation office. He said the family would soon be shifted to a residential flat owned by the corporation.
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Sreekumar had on Monday evening visited their house and assured the mother that a temporary job would be provided to her."One of the apartments, which has been constructed for the homeless under the Life Mission, will be given to the family," he told reporters.
Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala and Congress leader V.M. Sudheeran visited their residence. By night, Sreedevi found herself at Poojapura Mahila Mandiram shelter with the two youngest children.
Kerala govt will adopt the children: Minister
Minister of Health and Social Welfare K.K. Shailaja said that the government would adopt Sreedevi's children. The state government would extend all sorts of helps. The minister said that no child should suffer from this kind of life situation.
(With inputs from Malayala Manorama, PTI)
