Poor men killing their mothers in Tamil Nadu By Vox Purpli - YahooINEditors – November 19th, 2010

Poverty-stricken men are performing a ritual and killing their mothers in Tamil Nadu’s industry hub of Virudhunagar, a magazine has reported.

“Young family members of this district in southern Tamil Nadu have been pushing their infirm, elderly dependents to death because they cannot afford to take care of them,” Tehelka magazine writes in its latest edition. The irony couldn’t be greater: the story breaks in a week politicians of the state are being exposed, and charged with looting the nation’s wealth to the tune of Rs 1.76 lakh crore. Tehelka’s story, by Shahina KK, narrates the shocking case of a woman who barely managed to escape death:

When 65-year-old Maariyamma suspected this might happen to her too, she moved out of her son’s house two years ago. “I’m not well enough to live on my own, but it is better than being killed by them,” she says. Amazingly, there is no bitterness in her voice. Or anger. “They’re struggling hard to take care of their own children,” says Maariyamma, of her sons. She places no blame. Her two sons and two daughters are farm labourers who travel to different villages every sowing and harvesting season. Seeing her children at pains to run their house, and feed and educate her grandchildren, Maariyamma knew she was a burden. She knew how it would end if she didn’t leave.

The poor of the district are using several methods, including poison injections, to put their elders “to sleep”.  One of them is called thalaikoothal, and involves a ritual bathing of the victim.

Thalaikoothal works thus: an extensive oil bath is given to an elderly person before the crack of dawn. The rest of the day, he or she is given several glasses of cold tender coconut water. Ironically, this is everything a mother would’ve told her child not do while taking an oil bath. “Tender coconut water taken in excess causes renal failure,” says Dr Ashok Kumar, a practicing physician in Madurai. By evening, the body temperature falls sharply. In a day or two, the old man or woman dies of high fever. This method is fail-proof “because the elderly often do not have the immunity to survive the sudden fever,” says Dr Kumar.

Like Sati in parts of Rajasthan, the practice enjoys covert social acceptance, and no one complains.