SM gives impetus to anti-mining stir in Kerala

Social media has once again proved its mettle in Kerala — this time taking on rampant sand mining.

A stir by the people of a coastal village that remained almost ignored by the media and the politicians for two months has hogged the limelight as a social media campaign on the issue became viral.

The highlight of the social media campaign is a video posted by a 17-year-old girl of the locality, explaining the plight of the people.

Lakhs of people so far viewed the video and noted actors like Prithviraj even joined the issue. What followed was a beeline of politicians and social activists expressing solidarity with the stir and the state government was compelled to invite the agitators for talks.

Kerala had witnessed many social media campaigns by unorganised sectors gaining much attention. The "Iruppu samaram" (sitting stir) by sales women to protest against the restrictions on them to sit while on duty gained momentum through a social media campaign and the government even brought out a law recently to ensure their right to sit.

Alappad, a coastal village in South Kerala district Kollam, is now trending on social media with the hashtag "#Save Alappad." The local people launched a relay hunger stir on November 1, 2018. Their concern was that their village was shrinking from about 90 square kilometres in 1955 to hardly nine square kilometres now, allegedly owing to the indiscriminate mining of mineral sand by central public sector undertaking Indian Rare Earths Limited and Kerala government public sector undertaking Kerala Minerals and Metals Limited.

But the government authorities are yet to fully subscribe to this concern, citing that sea erosion was reducing coastal areas at various places.

K C Sreekumar, a leader of the local action council, told DH that even as they held a press conference ahead of the launch of the indefinite stir on November 1, it did not receive much attention.

A section of students from the Thuravoor regional campus of Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit, who used to engage in social service activities in the locality, came across our plight and they initially took it to social media towards the end of December. Subsequently, students from various colleges also extended support to the stir and the "#Save Alappad" campaign started.

Along with it, local girl Kavya, a plus-two humanities student of the nearby Karunagapally Government Higher Secondary School, posted a video explaining the plight of the people of the locality and how it was threatening the existence of about 7,500 families in the fishermen hamlet.

“As the stir was going on without getting any media or political attention, I just thought of putting the video. Luckily, it has also helped the stir gain more momentum,” Kavya told DH.

As the social media interventions were gaining air, the agitators posted details about their plight on social media pages of many prominent personalities, like actors, politicians, social activists and cultural leaders.

Subsequently, actors like Prithviraj and Tovino Thomas expressed solidarity with the stir and it went viral. The Opposition Congress-led UDF also took up the issue. This forced the government to hold talks with the agitators and suspend the sea-wash mining process, and initiate a scientific study by a scientist of the Centre for Earth Science Studies, T N Prakash.