Brutalities on Podu farmers could could raise army of rebels

ADILABAD: While hundreds of podu farmers who are being forcefully evicted from their lands are undergoing harrowing times, their offspring are staring at a bleak future and are living in perennial fear.   

The authorities who evicted several families allegedly ill-treated, assaulted and dragged women in Koya Poshaguda village in Dandepally in Mancherial district last week, all these right in front of hapless children, who wailed and wept uncontrollably.

The Naikpod Adivasi women, who are considered innocent and not exposed much to the outer world, mainly depend on minor forest produce and making mats, baskets, and other items with bamboo they collect from the forests.

A few Naikpod families have agricultural lands and many of them cultivate in podu lands and live on the fringes of forests and live in pathetic conditions across Telangana. With the police and forest officials resorting to physical assault and mental harassment of these innocent tribals in full glare of their children, it would have lasting impact on the children’s psyche, say experts. 

These children could grow up as radicals and may develop strong feelings against the system as they go through a lot of mental agony that will impact their thought processes, they opine. Many psychological researches proved that the impact of such incidents would be higher on children.

Dr Om Prakash, psychiatrist, Adilabad, said children under the age of 11 years would have multiple effects on their personalities after witnessing such scary scenes and disturbing incidents in childhood. He said children’s exposure to cruel incidents may lead to ‘panic disorder’ and ‘agoraphobia’ among them while growing up and such indents will shape their personality in the long run.

“Bad incidents will have a negative impact on the personality of children and they will develop antagonism against the persons who caused harm to their family members or else they will develop a phobia of certain people who caused harm,” said Dr Om Prakash.  

It may be recalled that many lactating mothers who were involved in podu cultivation in Koyaposhaguda were arrested and sent to jail one month ago. Already, the forest staff are facing criticism for separating mothers from their breastfeeding children.   

Video footage of forest staff and police dragging Adivasi women podu farmers created unrest among Adivasi youth, especially in erstwhile Adilabad, Karimnagar, Warangal and Khammam.

A series of such incidents are allegedly taking place in tribal areas in order to evict podu cultivation. Adivasi community people expressed their shock on watching the heart-wrenching scenes in Koya Poshaguda. Adivasi youth strongly condemned the incidents of inhuman treatment of Adivasi women and youth, visuals of which went viral on social media.

Thudum Debba Adilabad district general secretary Purka Bapurao said the incidents of Adivasi women being ill-treated by forest and police created unrest among Adivasi youth and even non-tribals strongly condemned such incidents. Thudum Debba observed a bandh in erstwhile Adilabad bandh on Monday to protest against the forest and police officials’ atrocities on Adivasis for cultivating podu lands.