On a doli and a prayer

On the afternoon of September 5, when labour pain struck Kosi, 26, a Gutti Koya Adivasi woman from the remote tribal hamlet of Korkatpadu in Telangana’s Bhadradri Kothagudem district, she couldn’t have prepared herself for the excruciating journey that lay ahead of her. Despite the rough, slippery terrain, Kosi’s mother accompanied us”Relatives of Kosi The daily commute is an ordeal for the people of Korkatpadu as the forest pathway to the hamlet of 48 huts, some made in the traditional round way, often turns into a muddy trail, making it difficult to even walk. Despite the rough, slippery terrain, Kosi’s mother accompanied us,” recalls one of Kosi’s relatives, who shouldered the doli from Korkatpadu to Bodanalli, where the pucca road begins. “We have been living here for nearly 20 years, but are still deprived of a proper road and mobile connectivity,” says an elderly resident of the village who originally hails from Chhattisgarh’s Sukma district. The rebels had blown up the mobile tower of a private telecom service provider at R Kothagudem in Charla mandal in December 2010, a BSNL cell phone tower at Bandirevu in Dummugudem mandal in 2011, two cell phone towers belonging to private telecom firms one at Pedaarlagudem village, and another at Kothapalli village in Bhadrachalam Agency in early 2014, police sources said.