After Kerala reintroduced millet cultivation among the indigenous communities of Attapadi taluk, the villagers enjoy better health and livelihood despite losing crops to wild animals. Nanghi of Neelakuzhi hamlet, and the other farmers of her village in Attapadi taluk, are hoping for a bumper harvest of millets this year.

This story is about the tribal women farmers from Aalaththoor Village, Kollimalai. Aalaththoor is well known for millets cultivation among the tribal villages in Kollimalai. Aalaththoor Tribal farmers cultivate wide varieties of millets through rain fed irrigation and women had been at the forefront. 

Since 2013 Attapadi Taluk in Palakkkad district has been known as one of the hot spots of infant mortality. Malnutrition and other health related matters of tribal mothers are being blamed. In this context, the Kerala government has begun “Attapadi millet village scheme” in 2017.It has multifaceted goals – improve the health of tribal women and children, ending infant mortality death, ensure livelihood with better price for millet they produce.

This year, the whole world is giving importance to Millets. Even the years 2023–24 have been counted as Millets years. The women who invest the most labour in the production of millets are still visible in the participatory process. Their voice is not heard in their home in the decision-making process. Still, they have not been directly involved in the processes of seed selection, production, and marketing of millets.

There are many millet varieties in the world like Bajra, Maize, Ragi, Chama, Millet, Koovarak, Varak, etc. Uniqueness is that they could withstand drought and water scarcity. And it have high nutrient content. Earlier tribal communities in Wayanad district in Kerala had been cultivating millet. Infact, today, it seems that almost all tribal farmers in Wayanad have almost abandoned millet. Water scarcity, lacks of adequate land, economic losses are to be blamed.

Thenpathi has a small hamlet of landless daily-wage workers who reside within the Kaveripoompattinam panchayat limits of Mayiladuthurai district. The hamlet has 96 households and the inhabitants belong to the Schedule Caste. 90% of these villagers earn from agriculture and fishing practices, and their incomes vary depending on the season.

According to the SAM records turned up during last month, most of the severely malnourished people in the district belong to tribal communities. 47 children are from tribal communities amongst the 60, who diagnosed with severe malnutrition. Even though there are 13 children from general category, the count from the former sees a scary surge.

What about sipping the hot evening tea with pepper tinted spicy cookies or a slice of plumcake in jackfruit flavour? Basa Agro Food would be the right choice for those enticing cravings. Being a small venture began from a village named Trikkaippetta didn’t curb Basa Agro Food from dreaming of seizing wide horizons. Dollloping Wayanad’s evenings with an array of Kerala flavours, Basa became an everyday presence in Wayanad’s households these days. Made with Kerala’s own appetizing flavours like jackfruit, black pepper, ginger, curry leaves, bamboo rice and Bird's eye chillies, Basa’s cookies and cakes have another story to serve.

After pursuing Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering, Sandhya, a native of Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, joined a leading car parts manufacturing company in Mumbai and continued working there till 2020 before she learnt that her younger child suffered from a heart related illness.

Around 10 Irular families are living in a tiny land space in the middle of a farming field in Jakkampettai, a village in Villupuram District. It took us 3-4 hours to reach Jakkampettai from one of the core areas in Chennai. Men belonging to those Irular families often travel to other nearby villages and districts to earn a living. Women work as daily wage farm labors in the same village and take care of their kids.