2024-02-02
The sea in the East is rough and stormy. The rough sea signals that the off-season has arrived. Off-season has arrived not only in the sea, but also in the lives of the people in the village of Walayuththu in Kuchchaveli. Economic problems, like the stormy sea, have entwined their lives. Although the new year has arrived, it has become a very difficult task for many of the people in Walayuththu to get the schoolbooks they need to send their children to school in the new school term and to find money for other expenses. That is because it becomes difficult for them to find any job or to go to sea during the off-season, which is rainy.
These people are used to earn a living on other days by doing some manual work in the gardens, but their life becomes so hard during the off-season as there are no jobs in the gardens during the off-season and as they are unable to provide any boat service to tourists due to the closure of the Pigeon Island Park as the sea is rough. On the other hand, not having access to a job with a permanent income and their lack of knowledge and capital required for such jobs are the obstacles in alleviating the poverty of the people in Walayuththu.
Poverty has not disappeared yet from the village of Walayuththu, which has been slowly recovering after the war has ended. Samurdhi assistance and other forms of livelihood support have become a staple of life for many people living in this village. The lagoon and the sea are a great blessing for them in earning their living.
Walayuththu does not lack people who make a living by catching crabs with the cages put into the lagoon, who pull the Ma Dal fishing nets for a wage, and who engage in Jaa Kotu fishing. Some go to work as labourers in gardens where papaw, onion or brinjal are grown. Some others go to work as masons, and some take tourists to the Pigeon Island. There are some shops in several places in the village where groceries are sold. Some people sell the vegetables or papaw from their gardens in roadside stalls. As none of these activities earn them a permanent income, and as they do not have the habit of saving some money during the seasons in which they earn some income, every year, the off-season becomes the period that deprives them of their happiness and makes them struggle for survival.
Most of the people in Walayuththu, who suffered the impact of the thirty-year long war and the economic crisis, are those who do not own any land. For a long period, some people have been occupying the lands that originally belong to other people who have left the area due to the war. Some others have become helpless as their lands and houses are occupied by other people. Many people are living in rented houses as refugees because they have lost their original lands due to war. Thus, the inability of the authorities to solve the land problems faced by these people is yet another obstacle for these people to rise above their poverty.
” We used to live in the land named ‘Niger’, but we were sent away from that land claiming that it belonged to a hotel. Then we cleared this big forest and came to live here, but now, someone living in Australia claims that the land belongs to him. We were born here, and so were our children. We were the ones who suffered due to the war. We also witnessed the war; but, sir, we have lost the right to live in this land.” That is how Palani Appan Nirmaladevi spoke about the common issue of land faced by Palani Appan and the others in Walayuththu.
It was due to this reason that cases have been filed against seven families of the Palani Appans and five other families. These people have cleared the jungle, prepared the land and built a hut in which they have been living for 15 years, but now they have been sued claiming that the land belongs to a person living in Australia. Despite that these people have been living in Walayuththu for a long time, many of them do not have deeds or permits for their lands. Jeyandani, who lives next door to Palani Appan’s house, does not own a land either. Neither do Sisilin and Mervyn, who left Walayuththu in the 1980s displaced due to war and returned after the war had ended. They did not get the lands they originally owned and the old houses in which they lived – they have been grabbed by other people. These elderly people, who keep sorrowing looking at their property, are struggling hard for their survival in the very village in which they were born.
The brown eyes of these people, who fled as refugees to escape war, suffered a lot of hardships and have returned to Walayuththu, and are now struggling hard to restore their livelihoods, silently reveal that they have many dreams in their lives, too.
Because of these issues, the women who toil in the lands of Erakkandi in Walayuththu, and the men who struggle hard in the sea, are enduring a lot of hardships to make their living. The expectations of these people, who suffered for 30 years due to war, are sky-high; they are as beautiful as clouds; and are as fresh as raindrops that kiss the ground; but it is sad to see that they are only dreams and are not coming true.
– Lakmal K. Baduge –