40 years on, 550 Kanikars in Tiruvannamalai fight for community certificates

TIRUVANNAMALAI:  “There are good times ahead, Jakamma will come to your house soon for good fortune,” members of the soothsayer Kanikar community call out to potential customers. This phrase has been passed down through generations of the community - locally called kudukudupukarans - that dabbles in the trade of predicting the future. Jakamma’s good fortune has been eluding 550 Kanikar members in Tiruvannamalai for over four decades.

Since 1981, 140 families in Arni town and  Iyyampalayam Puthur Kamaraj Nagar have been fighting to obtain community certificates. In 2022 alone, seven students in the area dropped out from Class 10 in government schools. “Every institution asks for a community certificate. Without it, we won’t be able to access benefits, so why study further?” said V Reena (16) a dropout.

Without this, scholarships and government employment remain out of reach for 100 Kanikar students. P Ponnusamy, a soothsayer and father of three children, has been struggling to obtain a certificate for his disabled son, P Kannan (22), who is currently a PG student at the Presidency College. Kannan is the first graduate in his family. “My daily wage is Rs 500 while my son’s hostel fee is Rs 25,000 per annum,  With a certificate, my son will secure a scholarship,” he said.

Despite 70 petitions submitted to the collectorate till now, there has been no response. Attempts to register at the e-seva centre too have been futile. When residents asked collector B Murugesh about the matter, he allegedly said:  “During the last census, the Kanikar community was left out of the ST category. Officials sent a request for a petition to the Adi Dravidar office in Coonoor to add the community within the category.”  TNIE attempted to contact the collector several times, but there was no response.