Stepping into the compound of the Government Upper Primary School at Valiyathura in Thiruvananthapuram, one is met with a rather strange intersection of two worlds. In one of the buildings, students sit in their classrooms, attentively listening to their teachers. In another, scores of families go about their household chores. The UP School, located in the coastal region of Valiyathura around 10 km away from the city, has become a ‘permanent shelter’ of sorts for many area residents who have lost their houses in the recent years due to recurring coastal erosion, rough weather, and the Cyclone Ockhi of 2017.
“It has been three years since we began our stay in this building. I have seen several deaths and births ever since. Now it seems like we too will end up dying here. We cannot even afford to rent a house, so we have no place to go,” says Baby, a fish vendor who began to live in the school building with her family after her house was destroyed in sea erosion. Though some of the families who used to stay with them in the building have been shifted to a flat complex at Muttathara, which was built by the government for the rehabilitation of displaced fisherfolk, many say their names were nowhere to be seen in the list.
There are three buildings in the school compound that have been divided using a sheet. One side comprises two buildings – both used as rehabilitation shelters – while the single building on the other side of the sheet continues to function as the school. This division was made after offline classes resumed for students in November 2021, after a long break owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many families, however, have been living in the school since 2016, when coastal erosion started to become a recurrently destructive affair, rendering their houses unusable. To make things worse, Cyclone Ockhi unleashed catastrophe in the coastal region in 2017, causing even more people to abandon their seaside houses that frequently suffered damages due to the wildly temperamental sea.
Every room in the two ‘shelter’ buildings of the school is inhabited by two or three families, each comprising three to five people. A big hall has been divided into several parts using bed sheets, with each division serving as a ‘house’ for one family each. Home appliances such as television and fridge are placed in the corners of the room, and the beds have been arranged in the little space left. Food is also served and eaten in the hall. The only space that allows the children and the elderly to breathe freely is the courtyard outside. “Teenage boys and girls live in the building with no privacy at all. We parents have to always be cautious to ensure that our children do not watch and imitate everything we do. We are scared for our kids’ future,” Christy, another resident, tells TNM. Earlier, young boys and men used to sleep on the verandah of the third building, which was functioning as the school. However, after the school reopened, this had to be stopped. “When that was the arrangement, we at least had some privacy because half of the residents used to sleep there,” she adds.
Most of the men who live here, except the elderly, are fishermen, while some women work as fish vendors to make a living. “We lost our house to sea erosion in 2016, before Ockhi. At the time, there were 19 families living in the school. Now, up to 110 families live here. The number started to go up because rough seas and erosion became a regular occurrence after Ockhi. This is only going to become more frequent in the coming years. The situation in the area is already very intense, so much so that we are not even able to go to work at times,” says Christopher, who has been staying at the school with his family for seven years.
Christopher opines that some families were not added to the list of beneficiaries to be rehabilitated because they were not members of the Kerala Fishermen’s Welfare Fund Board. “I finally got membership in the Board two years ago. Government officials recently came and collected my family details, so we are hopeful that we will soon make it to the list,” he says.
However, according to the authorities concerned, every family that submitted relevant documents had received a flat at Muttathara as part of the government’s rehabilitation efforts. “Not everyone who is currently staying in the school lost their houses in sea erosion. Some of them used to live in rented houses. Earlier, a hearing was held to allocate four flats, which were left vacant after rehabilitating the beneficiaries at Muttathara, to people who submit the relevant documents. Even then, some people failed to produce documents,” says Sheeba Patrick, a Congress member and former councillor of Valiyathura. Irin Dasan, the current ward councillor, echoes Sheeba’s words. “All those who submitted documents got houses. Besides, even if they had lost their title deeds, an authorisation letter from the village office would have been enough for them to be rehabilitated. Some flats were even allotted with former neighbours’ testimony alone. We just needed them to confirm that the beneficiaries used to own the house they were living in,” the CPI(M) member says, adding that those who are yet to receive houses will be considered in the next phase of the government’s rehabilitation project.