Under the dim glow of a municipal streetlight in Payyannur, Durai, his wife Panchami, and their children cook their meals, eat, and find what sleep they can on a cold shop veranda. By day, they scavenge for scrap metal and plastic to survive. Yet, in the eyes of state bureaucracy, this homeless family is comfortably settled in a fully electrified home, a technicality that deprives them of crucial welfare benefits.
The cruel irony of their situation is etched into their ration card. While they literally struggle to find shelter on the streets, supply officials have categorised them in a bracket that disqualifies them from Below Poverty Line (BPL) benefits, deeming their non-existent house “electrified”.
A bureaucratic trap
For months, Durai and his family have been knocking on the doors of the local Taluk office, pleading with officials to update their ration card to the BPL category. Despite their meagre monthly earnings of around ₹1000, official rules and system parameters reportedly prevent authorities from reclassifying them. Without a BPL card, they remain locked out of free foodgrains, healthcare subsidies, and other state-sponsored social security nets designed for the destitute.
From Tamil Nadu to Payyannur’s streets
Durai (34) and Panchami (33) migrated to Payyannur from Tamil Nadu 15 years ago in search of a livelihood. To help the landless and homeless family qualify for a municipal flat project, local authorities stepped in years ago to help them secure Aadhaar cards and a ration card. To meet system requirements, officials used a dummy address of a house in Koroth.
Promises on paper, harsh reality on the ground
However, the proposed flat project never materialised. While the housing scheme remained a distant dream, the paper records endured. The system registered them as residents of an electrified home at the Koroth address, leaving them stuck in a high-income bracket on paper while they continued to sleep on the concrete verandas of Stadium Road.
Today, Durai and Panchami live on the street alongside their four children, two of whom manage to attend a local school despite the immense hardships. They share their makeshift roadside shelter with relatives Maheshwari, her husband Ganeshan, and their two children. Realising the gravity of their plight, the Payyannur municipality is currently making urgent efforts to secure at least a rented house for the families to offer them temporary relief from the elements.
