PICTURE SPEAK

FAREWELL: Maniyappan's son lighting the pyre.

In the General Reserve Engineering Force (GREF), the road and bridge building division of the Indian Army, they were fondly called "Kamukees". In Malayalam, the word means fiancee but the strong-built men who toiled hard in difficult conditions in distant lands were so called because they hailed mostly from the three coastal villages of Kayamkulam, Muthukulam and Keerikad in Aalappuzha district in central Kerala. Ramankutty Maniyappan, the 36-year-old driver with the Border Road Organisation (BRO), too hailed from the Chingoli Panchayat in Muthukulam. He was working on the Zeranj-Delaram highway project in Afghanistan when he was abducted and later killed by the Taliban. With his death may end the decades-long relationship between the "Kamukees" and GREF or its division, the BRO, which provided much of these villages their livelihood.

Ever since the GREF was formed in 1960, the three villages had been its virtual recruiting ground. There is even a Kerala Ex-GREF Employees Welfare Association (KEGEWA), with a state-wide membership of more than 10,000. Over 7,500 of its members belong to the three "Kamukee" villages. The association collects a minor membership fee which is used for welfare schemes and financial aid for widows and daughters of former GREF employees.

PICTURE SPEAK

LIVING IN FEAR: Women are worried for their husbands (left); retired GREF employees (above).

It was in the early '60s that the Kamukee exodus began from Kerala when the reclamation of the Kayamkulam backwaters for paddy cultivation resulted in a large number of people, mostly poor coir workers and fishermen, being left jobless. It was around this time that the GREF, which had just been formed, began to recruit able-bodied young men to work in distant lands. One local lad already employed by the GREF sent word to his jobless villagers about the "new opportunity". This triggered an exodus that remains unabated even today. The GREF policy of giving preference to relatives of those working in the company meant that hundreds were able to find jobs. "All you needed then was to be healthy and young," says K. Raman, 74, who was among GREF's earliest recruits and is currently the secretary of KEGEWA.

The umbilical ties between the GREF and the tiny hamlets are now on the verge of being snapped. Following Maniyappan's gruesome death, any mention of the GREF sends shudders through these villages. Even as Maniyappan's murder in the Afghan desert triggers heated debates in international fora, thousands of families in these villages now live in fear. Almost every family has a close relative working in BRO and since Maniyappan's death, few villagers have had a proper night's sleep, anxious over the safety of their kith in Afghanistan. There are currently 290 BRO employees working in Afghanistan and 49 are from Kerala. All of them are involved in building the UN-funded Rs 380 crore, 218 km highway connecting Zaranj near Nimrose on the Iran border with Delaram. Mostly poor, they opted to work there lured by the attractive monetary package which averages about $1,000 (Rs 45,000) a month plus allowances.

"I wish he leaves his job and comes back at the earliest. I would rather starve than have my husband losing his life there," says a sobbing Sarasamma, 30, whose husband works in Afghanistan. Twenty one-year-old Suja has been stricken by fear ever since the death of Maniyappan. Her husband Sasi and Maniyappan had travelled together from Delhi to Kabul. Sarada, 36 says the only communication she had from husband in Afghanistan in the past four months was a phone call a few days ago. "We haven't slept or eaten in days. All we ask of the Central Government is that our familiy members be given proper security," says Rema, Sarada's college-going daughter in tears. Even more unbearable for them is the virtual lack of communication with their menfolk working in Afghanistan. "It takes two weeks for a letter to reach us," says Sarasamma. Maniyappan's last letter to his wife, sent on November 11, reached her on November 26, a day after his cremation.

After Maniyappan's death, BRO employees who had come back on leave are not being allowed to return to work in Afghanistan by their relatives. "I am supposed to go back next week. But my parents and wife threaten to commit suicide if I do so," says Krishnan, who works as a mason for the BRO on the Zaranj-Delaram highway project.

The residents can scarcely suppress their anger against the Central Government and the BRO. "The Central Government did nothing to save Maniyappan only because he was a lowly employee. Now they are involved in a blame game over who killed him," says Raman of KEGEWA. "The compensation that the Central Government has announced to his wife is paltry. Initially Rs 10 lakh was declared which was the equivalent of what he would have got as retirement benefits. They have announced free school education for his two small children not knowing that in Kerala it is free anyway," he adds. The only solace for the widow of the "Soldier of Peace" has come from the Infosys Foundation which has promised Rs 10 lakh.

There are no statistics of how many GREF employees have died on duty. Even now in Afghanistan, BRO employees are victims of discrimination and corruption says an employee requesting anonymity. For instance, the monthly salary offered for all who volunteer for work in the one-year-old highway project in Afghanistan for a minimum of two years was $1,074 besides their usual salaries averaging about Rs 10,000. "But after reaching Afghanistan we were classified into divisions and the last graders are given only $524. Of which about $60 is deducted for food, accommodation, power etc," says an employee. "Our superior officers get more than $2,500 a month. We suspect there is much corruption involved by the middle men in denying us our promised wages". Among the 250 Border Roads Task Force (BRTF) staff currently working in Afghanistan, only 25 are officers.

Besides, there is the safety factor. "When we go out to work, Afghan policemen are supposed to guard us. However, most of these so called police- men have close links with the Taliban,"says a worker. A KEGEWA official says that there was information that Maniyappan was set up for the Taliban by the Afghan guards themselves. With protectors turning out to be predators, it is little wonder that Kamukees are increasingly opting to stay at home.

Index