In the early-evening darkness, when rain poured down again in the hilly neighbourhood of Mavungal, a few kilometre from Kanhangad municipality in Kasaragod district of Kerala, K. Praveena held her 15-year-old son close to her chest after sensing his nervousness listening to the pitter-patter sound.
As she wrung her hands piteously around him, the 38-year-old music teacher sounded worried about the future of her son born with cerebral palsy, a victim of the lethal Endosulfan pesticide, which was sprayed across plantations in the district earlier.
“His behaviour has changed with age. He often turns aggressive at the slightest disturbance,“ said Ms. Praveena, who quit her career at a school in Madikai grama panchayat to take care of the child when her husband abandoned them long ago.
