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safuvana

safuvana
sherin , lakshadweep

Mid shot of Cheriyakoya M (47) standing outdoors, carrying his daughter Safuvana Sherin (11). She sits on his arms close to his left waist and his clasped hands support her bottom. Her right arm is around her father’s back and her left arm rests on his chest with the hand clutching his shirt. both of them are grinning with their faces close to each other. Cheriyakoya wears a cocoa-brown half-sleeved shirt and has a salt-and-pepper moustache and backcombed straight hair. Safuvana wears a light blue sleeveless frock tied at the back. In the background there are the upright and leaning trunks of several tall coconut palms as well as younger palms with green fronds.
Cheriyakoya and Safuvana sit on the beige marble tiled floor of the front verandah. He wears his brown shirt with light bluish-grey pants. He sits on his legs with bent knees and feet pointing backwards. She sits in a similar posture, leaning forward slightly. She wears a turquoise blue short-sleeved T-shirt with dark mushroom pink pants, and a narrow pink plastic headband. He holds up a pale orange-yellow, short-stemmed dahlia-shaped plastic flower in his right hand. She is looking at the flower while holding a similar plastic dahlia on a long stem with green leaves close to her chest. To the right there is a round-bottomed white vase in which there are tall sprigs of yellow and white plastic flowers. Behind them there is a chocolate brown wooden window with rectangular panels and glass panes.
Cheriyakoya and Safuvana on the floor of the open verandah with the brown wooden front door open behind them. Cheriyakoya sits with bent knees and feet pointing backwards. Safuvana sits in front of him with her legs dangling over the edge of the verandah. Cheriyakoya is running a pale violet comb through his daughter’s hair. He holds the comb in his right hand while his left hand grips Safuvana’s left shoulder.
On the beige marble floor of a room with off-white walls, Cheriyakoya, Safuvana and her brothers Mohammed Razza Zayan (9) and Mohammed Razik (4) sit cross-legged on the floor around a board game that is a combination of Carrom and Ludo. The multi-coloured board has a pale yellow base, stripes of purple, orange, yellow, green and pink around the raised edges, and a Ludo image in the centre with pink, blue, orange and green squares. Safuvana sits facing the camera, opposite Cheriyakoya who has his back to the camera. She is looking at her father and grinning. The profile of Zayan, sitting on the left, faces Razik on the right. Safuvana wears her pale blue frock paired with loose maroon pants with floral motifs. Cheriyakoya wears his brown shirt and a white lungi with grey outlined graph checks. Zayan wears a black half-sleeved knit shirt and deep purple pants. Razik wears faded blue denim shorts and a black half-sleeved knit shirt with horizontal stripes of chocolate brown, yellow and white.
The family poses in a row sitting on the edge of a bed in a room with off-white walls. From left to right: Zayan, Cheriyakoya, Safuvana, Razik and mother Khamarunnisa (37). All of them are smiling broadly. Only Safuvana sits cross-legged; all the others have their legs dangling to the floor. Zayan wears purple pants and a half-sleeved knit shirt of navy blue with sky blue horizontal stripes. He has hooked his left arm firmly around his father’s right biceps. Cheriyakoya wears a light grey T-shirt and a lungi in a chequered design of maroon, yellow and grey. Safuvana leans against her father. She wears a black T-shirt and maroon pants with yellow floral motifs. Razik is looking at his father. He wears his blue denim shorts and black knit shirt with brown, white and yellow stripes. Khamarunnisa wears a burqa with broad vertical panels of navy blue and grey. A smoke-grey dupatta is wound around her head and draped across her chest and shoulders. Behind them is a drawn window curtain in a silken chocolate-brown fabric with a cream horizontal panel in the middle.
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“I like being on stage in school drama programmes. I go to the beach and watch children run”

Imagine being on an island, unwinding on a sandy beach, snorkelling or scuba diving in jewel-hued lagoons brimming with marine life that you view through a glass-bottomed boat. It sounds like paradise – but only if you’re a tourist. Visitors to the many islands in the Union Territory (UT) of Lakshadweep know nothing about the daily struggles of the islanders who provide the services they enjoy.
 
Kavaratti Island, the capital of Lakshadweep, is no more than 5.8 km long and 1.6 km wide. If you stay in the government-run UT Guest House there, you may be unaware that Cheriyakoya Mullappura (47) is one of its employees. The department where he works is responsible for collecting and warehousing vegetables and bakery goods imported by ship from Kochi; these are then delivered to the kitchen according to its daily requirements. Cheriyakoya has difficulty walking because, as he told us, he was born with one leg shorter than the other, and a curved rib because of which he cannot lift heavy weights. But he gives no importance to his ‘40 per cent disability’ because he focuses his attention on his eldest child, Safuvana Sherin (11), who is certified as 100 per cent disabled.  
 
Neither Cheriyakoya nor his wife Khamarunnisa Kunninamel (37) was able to put a name to her disability, just that it is “related to the nerves”. Her disability certificate says ‘Intellectual Disability’ but her parents tell us she has never been able to walk, stand up or hold objects in her hand; moreover her speech is impaired.
 
Cheriyakoya is the sole earning member of his family which includes his sons Mohammed Razza Zayan (9) and Mohammed Razik (4). When Safuvana was just three months old her parents found her head and neck movements abnormal. Later on, they noticed her assuming an awkward position when sitting. When she was around seven months old they took her to a hospital in Kochi where the doctor suggested physiotherapy. Although the baby’s condition improved with physio sessions they could only afford to stay on for six months, and their financial condition prevented them from travelling there frequently for treatment.
 
Khamarunnisa’s mother, elder sister and family live in a house on Kadmat Island. Zayan lived with his grandmother for a while, before Razik was born and the couple was dealing with Safuvana on Kavaratti. But when Cheriyakoya lost his job at the UT Guest House they moved to Kadmat. Cheriyakoya used to earn during the Covid pandemic by selling homemade food, especially for the people in quarantine. The family moved back to Kavaratti recently when he regained his job.
 
On Kadmat, although Safuvana was registered in a government school, a teacher used to come home frequently to give her lessons, and she would write exams from home with the help of a scribe. She also used to attend a daycare for children with special needs. On Kavaratti she is now in fourth standard in a Malayalam-medium government school that has promised to send home a teacher.
 
Safuvana liked going on stage to take part in cultural programmes in school, says Cheriyakoya. In her Kadmat school she once sat on stage dressed as a bride in an Oppana performance. [Oppana, a folk genre specific to the Mappila Muslim community of Kerala, is usually performed at weddings where a group of women dances in a circle around the bride dressed in her finery and sings the traditional Mappila Paattu.] She also used to take part in fancy dress programmes on Independence Day and other occasions. “I hope she gets such opportunities in her new school here as well,” says Cheriyakoya.
 
Khamarunnisa has to help Safuvana with her daily activities such as going to the toilet, taking a bath, and changing her dress. She likes going out and frequently visits the beach where she watches other children running about. She also has friends in the neighbourhood. She enjoys watching TV and listening to Mappila Paattu and Malayalam film songs that her mother plays for her on the mobile.
 
“If special schools and physiotherapy facilities can be improved at Lakshadweep, it would be a great support for children with disabilities,” says Cheriyakoya. He mentions the Lakshadweep Differently-abled Welfare Association which has been fighting for the rights of the disabled and holding protests to ensure that they get the allowances and benefits due to them. Cheriyakoya gets a disability pension of ₹1500 a month and Safuvana, an education allowance of around ₹6000 per year. However, Cheriyakoya says, “The local government is focusing more on tourism than on the struggles of the disabled.”
 
At one of the medical camps held every few years, Safuvana received a wheelchair but it is unusable now. At the most recent camp, an order was placed for a CP Chair (chair meant for those with cerebral palsy) which hasn’t been delivered yet. Cheriyakoya is looking for support to start a tea shop on Kadmat Island to augment his earnings.


Photos:

Vicky Roy

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