This has a huge – and deleterious impact – on local ecology. Pala town sits on the banks of River Meenachil. The Tropical Institute of Ecological Studies conducted a survey in January 2025, and found high levels of bacterial and chemical contamination in the river water after testing samples from 14 sites, ranging from the river’s origin in Meladukkam to its endpoint near Malarikkal, near the Pazhakanila backwaters. E.coli bacteria, which marks fecal contamination, was present at 10 lakh colonies per litre of water; untreated water from student hostels and homes flows into the river.
Over 100 drinking water schemes and 400 water tankers supplying drinking water draw from the river, and thousands are exposed to the contaminated water.
On April 20, 2025, a two-page advertisement of Brilliant Pala Study Centre in the Hindu newspaper noted that 90% of the students who performed well in the JEE examination from Kerala were students of Brilliant. (The coaching centre has branches in other cities and towns of the state too.) The five students who performed best in JEE from Kerala were apparently all enrolled at Brilliant. What is noteworthy, though, is that the topper from the state is ranked 98 in the all-India ranking list. What is also remarkable is that after these “toppers” emerge from their engineering or medical education, one scarcely ever hears of them. What do these students do in their professional lives? Do they all migrate abroad?
Even though the announcement of results of competitive examinations is an occasion for celebration at these institutes, the very existence of coaching as such a massive industry is a matter of concern. Students live in cramped spaces – three beds placed close to each other, such that even putting one’s legs down from the bed would be hard, in at least one hostel whose interiors this reporter has seen. Each room provides space only to lie flat in bed or sit at the table to study – within the room, one cannot do anything else. And beyond the room too, space is a huge constraint.
Several of the students who attempt these examinations once (mostly after dropping out of the academic routine after Class 12) need to sit the competitive examinations a second time to secure admission to a college and course of their choice – students taking the examinations again are called ‘repeaters’, and there are whole batches of such students, already branded with failure even as they first start out.
The parish priest at the local church in Arunapuram has a new confessional installed in the parish house, since several students would turn up and ask for confession at odd hours, when the church was not open. It is clear that the students at this Catholic-majority town face great stress, and it is evident that the whole environment of the town shares that stress.
This reporter lives in an area of the town where several neighbours run hostels for students. Many of these hostels are exclusively for women students. (One aunt who took in male students mentioned that they tend to eat ravenously, and could cause one to be eaten out of home and hearth! The women students are more figure-conscious, and restrict their food intake.)
The foul smell of masses of sanitary napkins being burnt often wafts her way, and also of occasional burning of plastic waste – it is not just water that is polluted, but also air.Meanwhile, in March 2025, Kerala Local Self Governments Minister MB Rajesh declared that 1,021 of the state’s 1,034 local self-government institutions had been declared “waste-free”.
Kerala launched a scheme for free distribution of sanitary pads to schoolgirls in 2017. In 2023, recognizing that disposal of used sanitary napkins was a problem, the state government started a new scheme to introduce M-cups (menstrual cups that can be re-used).
Installation of napkin vending machines in government schools along with incinerators is becoming a matter of asserting “progress” and concern for young women. The fact that these contribute to air pollution and sickness in the general population is seldom mentioned. This study from the European Journal of Public Health showed that cancer incidence was higher in populations exposed to incinerators.
This reporter was herself a hostel resident at Delhi University some decades ago; except when she was travelling, she used strips of cotton cloth during her period, which she washed, dried and re-used. There was no need to buy expensive sanitary napkins, and no dealing with plastic waste during one’s period. In a country with abundant sunlight, should sanitary napkin use be promoted?
(Full disclosure: This reporter has taken several pollution-related complaints to Pala Municipal Corporation and Pala Police; she has also written to Brilliant Study Centre, the state groundwater authority, the Kerala Pollution Control Board and the offices of the chief and health ministers of Kerala)
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*Freelance journalist
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