Indrani

There are innumerable victims of female infanticide. But a few children have escaped from it. One such child was Indirani. She was born in a small village known as Vetakkaranpudur, in Pollachi region, in Coimbatore district, in a poor family.

It was the practice in many villages for elders to aspire to have only a male child as rearing the female child and getting her married with dowry has been impossible. Indirani’s mother Mayilatha herself narrates what the villagers would commonly do.

A pit would be dug at the backyard of the house if a child is to be born. If a male child is born, a plant would be planted with cow dung and sand. If a female child is born, even without the knowledge of the mother, the elders give the poisonous juice of a plant (kallippal) which instantly kills the newborn. They bury the body in the pit. They do not even plant any plant as they do not even want a tree to grow over the body of a female child.

Mayilatha already had a male child and she wanted the second one to be a girl child. But she could not express her wish because others in the family, including her husband, wanted it to be a male child. So she made a silent prayer for a daughter and resolved to raise it against all opposition and decided not to kill the child.

The day of delivery proved to be sad as Mayilatha was delivered of a female child. The response was worse as they saw some problem in the child’s eyes. The eyeballs were not rolling and the baby’s sight was not alright. They understood that the child was born blind. Its father did not lose time in deciding the fate of the child.

He told Mayilatha not to feed the newborn and ordered her to give the poisonous milk of the plant. Mayilatha wept bitterly, fell at his feet and firmly told her husband that if he ended the life of the child, she would end her life too. As he needed the wages of his wife, he hesitated for a moment and changed his mind. The life of the child was saved. She was named Mariammal.

The real sufferings began after this. With very little money, the family found it impossible to have one meal a day. The poor mother was scolded and teased not only by relatives, including her husband, but her neighbours too for having given birth to a female child, that too a blind one.

But Mayilatha bore everything patiently hoping at least the third child would be a boy. In course, of time, she became pregnant again and she prayed to God earnestly to bless her with a male baby with good eyesight so that she could be saved from the curses of the people nearby. It was a shock to Mayilatha that the third child was also a female, worse, as blind as Mariammal.

This time the father decided to put an end to the life of not only the newborn but also his other daughter as he felt that bringing up two blind daughters would cause many problems in his life and the suffering would be unendurable. Though Mayilatha also knew all these things, she could not dream of killing her own children whom she had borne with agony and pain.

She again fought with her husband that she would not agree to kill the poor daughters and she would take up the responsibility of earning for their upbringing. Her husband was very angry with her and he used to stay in the nearby woods for a long time after his regular work was over as he could not tolerate the sight of his two blind daughters.

Mayilatha named the second daughter Indirani. When the child was three months old, the father had a poisonous snake bite and died in the woods where he used to spend his leisure time. The neighbours and relatives cursed the blind children and opined that the ill-fated Indirani had brought the death of her father. No one, including her father, came forward to help Mayilatha.

The three-month-old Indirani and her elder sister could not be properly fed by Mayilatha. So she worked as a servant maid in the nearby houses, cleaning the utensils and washing clothes. There also she faced insults as she was the mother of two blind daughters. So she left the job and spent her time in collecting the leaves of the coconut trees in the forest where her husband was bitten by a snake.

She soaked the leaves in water and made roofing materials out of it and earned some money selling them. The children cried for milk and food but poor Mayilatha could not breastfeed Indirani as there was no flow of milk because she could not afford to eat any full meal at all any day.

With untold misery the children grew up. The neighbours scolded Mayilatha for being adamant in raising the two blind girls in spite of their blindness and said she had brought the whole thing upon herself. The two girls started to walk with difficulty. This is a wonderful period in the life of children and parents usually enjoy the way their offsprings try to get up and walk and fall.

But in the case of Mariammal and Indirani, they were not like other children. Mayilatha found it very difficult to take care of the two girls as she had to go for work in the day time. No one came forward to assist her. When she carried the girls to her work spot, others chided her as she would leave the work to go tend to the girls.

Not only the outsiders teased her but her own father told her to leave the girls by the side of a nearby well that did not have a wall so that they would fall into it so that she would be relieved of the unbearable burden. He also suggested that instead of leading a miserable life all through her life, it would be better if she pushed them into the well and cried for a day. He used to beat the blind girls in anger.

One day, he was so heartless that he drove Mayilatha and the two girls out of his house. Though upset, Mayilatha did not lose heart. With a strong will she constructed a small hut with a thatched roof, sticks and coconut leaves. She picked up three stones from the forest to make her oven and started a new life. She continued to sell the thatched materials.

A customer once told her that there was a school called Little Flower School for the Blind in Madras where education is given to them. She did not pay much attention to that in the beginning as she thought it would be impossible for the blind to study in an unknown place. Later, she worried a lot about the future of her blind daughters.

She decided to put them in the school for the blind. But she could not remember the name of the school. When she asked others about it, they could not give any positive reply. She was happy to see the same customer after a month and this time she carefully got the address of the school written on a paper. The illiterate Mayilatha gathered her strength and took her two daughters to Madras in 1975 and searched for the Little Flower School after making many enquiries.

She told the school authorities about the pathetic condition of the girls and got them admitted in class-1 and returned to her village. Mariammal and Indirani showed keen interest in their studies as well as games. Either of them stood first in the class in their studies. Indirani showed her talent in running, long jump and high jump and remained first in these events.

She could not tolerate anyone else getting the first place in games. She used to fight with her teachers to repeat the competition if she had lost the first place. Her teacher Sarojini Srinivasan was proud of the abilities and achievements of Indirani and her strong mind to achieve the first position in everything in spite of her disability. She never wanted to face failure. With the help of her teachers she wrote essays, stories and poems for magazines, radio and television.

The two girls completed their school education successfully and got admission into the Quaide-Milleth College for Women in Chennai. They found it difficult to meet the educational and other regular expenses. As no one came forward to help them, they had to discontinue their studies. Indirani joined the telephone operator course and completed it successfully.

She was lucky to get a job in SPIC and with her salary, she sent an amount to her mother in the village and educated her sister also. Both the sisters completed their B.A. and M.A. degrees. Mariammal secured B.Ed. degree also and is working in a Government High School. Indirani has been able to stand on her own leg and support her sister as well as mother, forsaking her own education.

Mariammal is well-educated, employed and settled in life. She is married and her mother takes care of her house when she goes to school. Indirani’s determination to achieve something solid in life made her forget the sufferings and face the challenges boldly. She wants to write about female infanticide, dowry and other social evils.

As she is busy with her regular work and nobody is there to help her in writing, her wish remains a dream. Indirani hopes that one day she would realise her dream. She makes an appeal to the public and government to show care and concern for the welfare of the blind girl who escaped from infanticide because of the strong will of her poor and illiterate mother who took all pains to get her educated which became a turning pointing in her life.

Indirani’s life is a lesson to everyone to know how they have to treat a female child, that too a blind one.

Shanmugam can be contacted @:
No: 54 Kamaraj Road,
Ramakrishna Nagar,
Alwar Thirunagar,
Chennai- 600 087.
Phone: 248 60 221
E-mail: shanmugam@azagi.com

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(Extracted from the book 'Hope is Life')