Every Child Matters

At the turn of this century, the United Kingdom was struck by a shocking event. It was a huge jolt to the people who had thought that they were doing well with their children, by and large. Then, Victoria Climbie’ died.

An 8-year-old from Ivory Coast, Victoria, was fostered by her aunt, Marie-Therese’ Kuoao and, taken out of the country in search of a better life for them both. They spent some time in France first before moving on to the UK in April 1999. Her aunt tried to enrol with several social services for housing and other needs, but had always been treating little Victoria badly. She also met a man younger than her, moved in with him but he was even crueller to the child.

Victoria was abused physically, mentally and emotionally in a variety of methods each more sadistic than the rest. Her aunt was told by a pastor that the child was possessed by Satan, hence she was evil. Because she was bed wetting, Victoria was forced to sleep in a bathtub in her own excrement and was poorly fed and abused at regular intervals. Even the times when she had been admitted in hospital and abuse suspected, the system simply lost track and quite unintentionally, she was failed at every level.

Crime, Featured, Kerala, Opinion, Society

By Suma Balan

October 17, 2019

Jolly Joseph: The Serial Killer of Koodathayi

Bandit queen Phoolan Devi is in no competition for Jolly Joseph—accused of poisoning six members of her family—as she was a brigand leader who got her underlings to do the act. There may also be instances of murders committed in rage, in response to long years of suppression or in retaliation, but none like the cold-blooded murders this ostensibly pious woman committed to satiate her lust for wealth.

In what has come to be known as the Koodathai murders, Jolly Joseph of this Kozhikode suburb killed six members of her family over a period of 14 years in cold blood. Her modus operandi was to give her victims cyanide-laden food, which caused almost instant death. It turns out that she carried a small bottle of the deadly substance in her handbag so that she could strike at will.

Jolly Joseph was the ultimate bundle of contradictions. She had a pleasing disposition outwardly, was a regular at the church. For over a decade, she went about pretending to be a member of the faculty at the National Institute of Technology (NIT), undetected, which raised her standing in the neighbourhood. Every day she would leave home without fail, but spent her time in a beauty parlour, for 14 long years.

Crime, Featured, Kerala, People, Society

By K Raveendran

October 3, 2019

20 per cent of Indian Population will be Elderly in 2050

The number of elderly persons in the country is fast increasing. Earlier this week, the International Day of Older persons was marked on the calendar—a day meant to pause for a moment and think about the plight of the elderly. Sadly, they are a much neglected lot and most of them are ill-treated by their own children. They are sometimes left in old age homes where they often feel miserable and lonely with their children and other near and dear ones hardly bothering to look them up.

According to a 2016 report by the ministry for statistics and programme implementation, India has 103.9 million elderly, people above age 60, which comprise about 8.5 per cent of the population. These numbers are based on the 2011 census.

A 2014 report by the non-profit HelpAge India shows that India will be the youngest country in the world by 2020. But, by 2050, as many as 325 million people, or 20 per cent of the population, will be ‘elderly’. The report adds that, while the overall population of India will grow by about 40 per cent between 2006 and 2050, the elderly population will grow by a whopping 270 per cent.

Featured, Life, People, Society

By Manisha Jain

September 23, 2019

Vimatha Rationalia 2019: Dialogue on Gender Inclusiveness

“Culture does not make people. People make culture. If it is true that the full humanity of women is not our culture, then we can and must make it our culture.”

―Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, We Should All Be Feminists

The Yuktivadi Sangham, Palakkad organised the ‘Vimatha Rationalia 19’, a two-day event, held recently in Palakkad. The program focused on measures to weave gender equality and inclusion into “culture” in all spheres of society, mentor young women to participate in politics, and create synergies among networks advancing these issues. It had 12 women speakers and one representing the LGBT community speaking about building a safer, fairer and more sustainable future.

Daily, Featured, Gender, Religion, Society

By Geetha Jayaraman

September 20, 2019

Buyers Beware: When Investing In Waterfront Properties In Kochi

In a place that is surrounded by water bodies, how cautious should new buyers be while buying property to avoid flouting Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) norms? This must be on every Kochiite’s mind post the Supreme Court order to demolish four prime properties in Maradu, Kochi for violating the CRZ rules. Was there information asymmetry? Were the residents of the apartments aware that the builders had violated CRZ rules? In this case 350 flat buyers seem to have thrown all caution to the wind when they invested heavily in these water-front properties which would have cost (by a rough estimate) nearly a crore per apartment.

The Apex court’s latest directive came on September 6, 2019 questioning the Kerala Government’s failing to carry out its May 8 order to demolish four apartment buildings—Holy Faith H2O, Alfa Serene, Jain’s Coral Cove and Golden Kayaloram by builders Holy Faith, Alfa Ventures, Jain Housing and K P Varkey & V S Builders respectively, for violating CRZ norms. In the face of losing their homes, the residents of these apartments have refused to vacate their flats and politicians of all hues have descended in front of the buildings in solidarity with the residents.

Besides the huge financial costs to bring down the four buildings and the possibility of environmental as well as infrastructural damage in the surrounding areas, it’s causing a huge headache to the Kerala government caught between the SC verdict and the emotional outpouring of the residents who are about to lose their life savings and their homes.

Daily, Featured, Housing, Kerala, Trending

By Geetha Jayaraman

September 11, 2019

Recollections of Onams Past: A Dalit Perspective

During my childhood, Onam festivities consisted of a three-day holiday from my Kendriya Vidyalaya School which followed the central government holiday regulations rather than the Kerala calendar. I envied my cousins who got a ten-day long vacation break starting on the eve of Onam.

The Onam celebrations meant a pookkalam (an arrangement of flowers) in school, and we students were allowed to don civil clothes on this day. But my English medium school was not culturally a fertile site for Onam celebrations since it lacked the sensibility of Kerala schools—it had a more cosmopolitan atmosphere. To make it worse, the payasam (sweet porridge) that was served was bought from a store and not freshly-prepared.

We dressed up on the day of thiruvonam as if we would be inspected by an imaginary guest—we wore our best outfits that were brand new or smelt like that. And we would feast on a grand vegetarian feast. The surfeit of payasams would make up for the absence of non-vegetarian food.

Culture, Featured, Festivals, Society

By Chandramohan S

August 23, 2019

The Catholic Church in Kerala: Dark days ahead

It’s seems like the Catholic Church in Kerala will imminently implode—Sister Lucy Kalappurackal’s seminal fight against her Order, Franciscan Clarist Congregation, and a section of the priests taking up cudgels against Major Archbishop George Alencherry—throw up fault lines that can seriously disrupt and redraw the contours of the Catholic faith, as it is traditionally understood and practiced.

In a world that has seen celebrated icons fall off their pedestals in the wake of the Me-Too campaign, the Church cannot be immune to the winds of change that are blowing. By hoisting the flag of revolt, Sister Lucy may have set the cat among the pigeons and initiated something that bring about reform within the monasteries, which have become a symbol of exploitation and violation of human rights. Sister Lucy asserts she has moral authority on her side, her only ‘crime’ being she came out in support of a fellow nun, who had accused Bishop Franco Mulakkal raping her, and took part in the strike orgainsed by nuns in public.

It is not sheer coincidence that the mantle fell on Sister Lucy—for her own entry into the religious order was of her own volition quite unlike most other nuns, for whom it may have never been a personal choice. She had got the religious calling when she was in tenth grade. She joined a Christian college and stayed in a hostel run by the nuns for better understanding of convent life. When she decided to join the order, the decision was wholly hers.

Daily, Featured, Kerala, People, Religion, Society

By T K Devasia

August 22, 2019

PVS | Quietly Shuts A Hospital

“Patients still keep coming,” Sheeja Thomas said pointing at the two women walking into the compound of the PVS Memorial Hospital in Kochi. Sheeja had joined the hospital as a clerk 11 years ago. But for the past three months, though, she has been jobless and is a regular at the sit-in protest in front of the hospital, which is carried out in two shifts from 8 am to 6 pm.

Many others like Sheeja are opposing the total shutdown of the 200-plus bed hospital on 10 May 2019. The 500 medical and non-medical staff members at the hospital had been completely clueless about the financial dark hole they were being sucked into.

About a year ago in early 2018, the Kochi branch staff had started facing delays in receiving their salaries. “Whenever we approached the management, we were paid something like Rs 5,000. Then we would be paid once in two months,” says Lisamma, who was a lab technician at the hospital for the past 24 years.

Daily, Employment, Featured, Health, People

By Vidhya C K

August 2, 2019

Magsaysay award for Ravish Kumar: A Paean to the Awarder

There are few occasions when an award or recognition honours the right person. In a world where corporates, interest groups, religious heads and corrupt politicians enjoy clear sway over the media, it’s indeed a rarity to see serious public interest journalism that speak for the underprivileged get recognized and honoured. Most of the awards and fellowships in the field of mass media are controlled by powerful corporates and they normally reach only those who are subservient and pliable.

It’s in this context, the committee that chose NDTV’s Ravish Kumar for the 2019 Ramon Magsaysay Award deserves applause and appreciation. Initiated in 1957, it’s the highest honour in Asia that celebrates the memory and the standards in leadership set by the third Philippine President after whom the award has been named. Every year, individuals or organizations in Asia who engage in selfless service, and are transformative influencers in the manner of the late Philippine president, are awarded.

Like elsewhere in the world, in India too, responsible journalism requires enormous courage these days. Often, journalists lose their fighting spirit under threat, intimidation and appeasement and simply surrender to the ruling elites. Newspapers and television channels desist from engaging in their role of critically examining government programs and policies. The all-pervasive crony capitalism has succeeded in reducing journalists to the role of stenographers, with no ability to critically engage with issues and events.

Daily, Featured, Media, People, Trending

By K A Shaji

July 22, 2019

The Saint Factory: Kerala gets a fourth Saint; 27 waiting in line

Kerala has been churning out more saints for the Roman Catholic Church in the last decade than ever in its history. Even as Sr Mariam Thresia is being elevated as a saint this October, 27 other saints are waiting in line, all on the threshold of sainthood. It also helps that Pope Francis is on a canonization spree.

Just four years after the canonization of Fr Kuriakose Elias Chavara and Sr Euphrasia, it’s indeed a celebratory moment for the Catholics in the state as another Kerala-born nun is bestowed with Sainthood this October. The Vatican has announced that Sr Mariam Thresia, a Thrissur-native and founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Family, will be canonized along with four others from around the world in October. Of the six saints from India (including Sr Mariam Thresia), four are from Kerala, with the other two being Mother Teresa and Fr Joseph Vaz, a Goa-born priest who was a missionary in Sri-Lanka.

Sr Mariam Thresia follows Sr Alphonsa, Fr Kuriakose Elias Chavara and Sr Euphrasia to join the lofty realm of sainthood from the Catholic community in Kerala. The canonization is significant as Mariam Thresia is the fourth from Kerala since 2008 to get elevated to sainthood. It may also be noted that the Catholics that are spread across three denominations in Kerala—Syro Malabar, Latin and Syro Malankara—constitute only a small portion of the 1.3 billion-strong global Catholic population.

Culture, Featured, Features, Religion

By Babu K Peter

October 4, 2017

Coimbatore-based journo alleges racist approach from Kerala House staff

Kerala House, the statutory mission house of the State in the national capital, has found itself entangled in another controversy. This time, the allegation raised against it has a racist tinge.

Niranjan Kumar, a Coimbatore-based journalist, in his Facebook account earlier this week alleged that he was verbally abused by the canteen staffer at the cash counter. He had gone to the Kerala House canteen last week to have lunch.

It is informed that Niranjan, who is working at ‘Puthiya Thalaimurai’, a television channel in Coimbatore, was in Delhi last week and went to the Samridhi canteen at the Kerala House. The canteen staffer at the counter allegedly abused Niranjan by addressing him ‘Tamizhan’, the Malayalam word used to denote a Tamil Nadu native. Niranjan was reportedly embarrassed by this and was equally enraged by the obvious racist approach of the canteen staffer.

Culture, Featured, People

By Greeshma Neelakandan

September 14, 2017

I said what I felt right, asserts Sebastian Paul

Amid scathing criticism arising from different corners against an article he wrote and published, South Live Editor-in-Chief, Dr. Sebastian Paul continues to be firm on his stand which was made clear in the article. The former MP and noted media critic had on Sunday published an article in which he justified the prominent figures visiting actor Dileep in prison who has been booked by the police in connection with the actress abduction case. The article published by the online portal South Live is titled ‘Sympathy is no crime; Questions should be raised for Dileep as well‘.

Reacting to those who came out against him, Sebastian Paul told The Kochi Post that he just said what he felt right. “I don’t claim my stand is the ultimate truth. I have always taken a stand in matters I felt pressing. When lawyers and journalists got engaged in a clash a year ago, I stood with the journo fraternity. That time people asked me why I took that stand even when I am a lawyer,” he chuckled.
“The same people asked why I argued for a Muslim when I raised my voice for Abdul Nasser Madani. I replied that it’s not the religion of the person, but it is the conscience that drives me while making opinions. I am a citizen who strictly believes in the constitution. The rights of a citizen ensured by the constitution protect him even in prisons. The culprits are awarded punishment only as per the rule. Even though the public wants to punish a culprit based on what they feel, the rule has its own way,” he said.

Crime, Featured, Law, Media, Opinion, People

By Greeshma Neelakandan