TIRUNELVELI

The gypsy families of Poonga Nagar on the outskirts of Valliyoor in Tirunelveli district have taken a proud decision of “not selling their votes for cash” during the Lok Sabha poll.

The slow but steady transformation of these gypsy families is something significant as they have started to send their children to school following the initiatives taken by a private organisation and a small group of reporters from Valliyoor. When they were given free house sites and then free concrete houses on these plots a few years ago, then Collector M. Karunakaran told them to admit their children in school.

Though the gypsy children were admitted in a residential school meant for child labourers at nearby Kottaiyadi, most of them, especially the girl children, became dropouts. When these girl children got married at the age of 15 or 16 years, the officials intervened again.

Thanks to these efforts, two children, Madhavi and Parvathi, have now written their Secondary SSLC public examination. On coming to know about the gypsy girls’ feat, Collector Shilpa Prabhakar Satish, before the commencement of the public examination, visited the girls at their homes in the gypsy colony in the first week of March to greet them with mementos.

Before leaving the gypsy colony after spending more than an hour, Ms. Shilpa appealed to them to cast their votes in the Lok Sahba poll without fail and not to get influenced by any allurement.

Now, the gypsy families, as a mark of respect to the Collector’s appeal, have made their decision clear and erected a digital flex banner, sponsored by the journalists, at their colony having 182 votes.

“Poverty and consequent hunger may force some of us to beg at times… but we won’t sell our votes for cash as it is our right,” proudly says the banner, which carries photos of the gypsy families.