TID-3: Our Perception of Idukki: The Paradoxes and the Realities

TID-3: Our Perception of Idukki: The Paradoxes and the Realities

In the previous article, we glanced through a lot of positive things
about Idukki. Unfortunately, the story doesn't end there. There are
many paradoxes that could change our perception of Idukki.

Even though Idukki is the largest district of Kerala, 97% of its area
is covered by rugged mountains and forests. 50% of Idukki is reserved
forests. Only 4.5% of the land is considered mid land (20-100m above
sea level). The terrain and weather has its own challenges for its
inhabitants.

Even though Idukki produces 66% of the power needs of Kerala, only
35.8% of the houses in Idukki have electricity.

Even though Idukki is a favorite tourist spot, it is only accessible
through roads. It does not have rail or air link. There are places in
Idukki that are not even accessible through roads. Idukki lacks the
infrastructure needed for the development of industries. These include
electricity, communications and transportation nightmares.

Majority of the people of Idukki migrated to Idukki in search of jobs
in the plantations and other construction sectors. (ex. dams) The
major cause of the backwardness results from the slowdown of the
economy due to the drop in prices of produces and commodities. This in
turn made plantations less profitable. The drop in prices of produces
resulted in the closing down of small and medium size tea factories.
The closing down of factories resulted in the lack of employment
opportunities in the plantations and its factories leaving many people
unemployed. Currently, if you travel through the terrains of Idukki,
you can see rusted and broken buildings of tea factories all along.
The big ones still survive. The owners of the small factories
abandoned their factories and have divided the tea plantations into
extremely small plots and handed over it to the workers for harvesting
the crop. They pluck these tea leaves and sell it to the other
factories. This is probably the lifeline that's keeping their kids get
their meals every day.

The limited educational opportunities, distance to these institutions
and lack of transportation add up to the long term under development
of the Idukki.

While Idukki is the perfect spot for vacations, life is a challenge
for the local people of Idukki. As factories closed and education and
employment facilities decreased, many people migrated out of Idukki.
Majority of the people who are left there are the people who are
either very well off (a very small percentage) or the people who do
not have any other place to go. And it's the state of their churches
and living realities that we read in the Orthodox Herald article
'Karuna thedunna devalayangal'.

All in all, if our perceptions are based on our few days of
vacationing in Idukki, there is a high chance that our perception
could be far different from the harsh realities. And by now we
probably have an answer to the question I had in the previous article
(How can Idukki be financially backward?).

Yes, based on all the challenges that we saw, Idukki can be a
financially backward place and the reality is that Idukki is a
financially backward place.

To be continued…

Next Article: TID-4: Idukki Diocese of IOC: The Genesis

Thanks,
Rajesh Vargheese
http://www.stgregoriosaustin.org/