Why Attapady's tribals have missed out on Kerala's development story

Attapady's infant mortality is 66, way higher than India's national average of 40

Maruthi and her husband Vellangiri are still mourning for their infant son who lived only for four-and-a-half-hours after birth in 2014. Maruthi, who continued working as a daily wage labourer into her third trimester, had grown steadily weak during pregnancy. There wasn’t enough food at home, the drinking water was contaminated and sanitation non-existent in her village.

This story is not set in a backward Indian state forever stuck at the bottom of the country’s development chart. Maruthi’s home is in Kerala, a state that last month reported India’s lowest infant mortality rate–six per 1,000