
IDP voices – Ponnaih Nisanthan at the Tharmapuram market
Tharmapuram market was tiny prior to the massive Kilinochchi town displacement that began in September 2008. It catered for the tiny Tharmapuram population. Once the Kilinochchi town moved northeast wards, Tharmapuram market swell in size to cater for the massive influx of IDP population. Today, the market appears like a copy of the pre-September Kilinochchi market. Among the hive of business activities in the Tharmapuram market, one of the tragic aspects of displacement hits one’s face.
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photo of Nisanthan selling Narval palam | |
The children as sellers. There are many very young girls and boys spending their day at the market trying to sell trivial amounts of fruit or vegetable to make a pittance which will be used to feed their IDP families. Twelve years old Ponnaih Nisanthan is just one of them. He had a small bucket of the purple berry fruit, Narval, that is in season. He was shouting to sell a small tin full of this fruit for LKR 10.00. He said, “Our village is Mannankulam in Kilinochchi. We displaced from there many times and have finally ended up here. My family is suffering severe poverty. I did not attend school since February this year. Before that I was studying Grade 8 at Kollar-Puliyankulam GTM School. We are eleven children in our family. My father works for daily wages. He does not get much work now. I have five younger siblings and none of them go to school. I pick these fruits from a tree near where we are living and bring it here to sell. I buy rice for the money I get and take it home. Every day I bring ten tins of fruit. Sometimes I sell them all and sometimes I won’t. Only if I take rice home, my mother will cook that day. Many children are selling this fruit like me because they too face poverty like us.”
09 November 2008
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