Kerala Development and the Attapadi Adivasi

Abstract

The development experience of the state of Kerala in southwest India is based generally on democratic principles of equality and popular participation. This article focuses on the lives of the Adivasi 1 people of Attapadi in the Palakkad district of Kerala. It argues that the state of Kerala largely treats the Adivasis as secondary citizens and ignores their right to be socially and economically empowered. The state of Kerala takes pride in its positive ranking on human development and social progress indexes but has not done enough to stop Adivasi infants from dying of malnutrition, and Adivasis’ demands for land rights have been disregarded. As a result, they are forced to live obscure lives in poverty and generally unable to influence their sociopolitical sphere.