The article and photo appeared in the November 4, 2015, edition of the Malayalam dailyKannur: The controversial news of tribal kids eating from garbage in Peravoor, which appeared in a section of Malayalam media some months back, was a ‘manufactured’ story, revealed one of the boys whose photo was published along with the article, and his mother.
The family residing at the Ambalakkuzhi tribal colony in Thiruvonappuram, near Peravoor, said that they had never sent their children to the garbage yard to forage for food, and they came to know about the issue only when the kid’s photo appeared in a Malayalam daily.
The news and photos of a group of tribal kids eating waste food first appeared in a vernacular newspaper and on its website (not on Onmanorama.com) about six months ago. The story kicked up a storm after it was subsequently picked up by many other local dailies and TV channels. It also went viral on social networks and sparked wide outrage, with netizens blaming the ‘inefficient and lethargic’ government for the plight of the tribal community in the State.
The controversial story returned to hit the headlines the other day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during a BJP campaign rally in Thiruvananthapuram, compared the State to the impoverished Somalia by citing the above-mentioned news as an example.
The family came forward with the explanation after Modi’s remarks triggered a chain of events leading to a nationwide uproar.
The CD containing the family’s revelation that it was a fake story covertly packaged as credible news by vested interests was made public by the leaders of the Kannur District Congress Committee (DCC).
In the footage, the boy claims that he posed for a photo at the garbage yard as per the direction of some local people. “They filled the sack with litter and offered me a banana. They asked me to eat it right there. The same photo appeared in the newspaper the next day,” he says.
According to the mother, she came to know about the incident only when some local people came to her home after reading the news. “I have never let my children to eat waste food even when we faced acute poverty,” she adds.
