Woman-power disrupts n-power

CHENNAI: In Idinthakarai, the village that has been the cynosure of all eyes since September 11 due to protests aga­inst the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Project, there is not a single wine shop! A recent attempt to open one in the village was thwarted by the womenfolk. The same aggressive women are at the forefront of the ongoing stir against the plant.The crowd that congregates under a massive canopy before a 100-year-old Roman Catholic church dedicated to Our Lady of Lourdes comprises more women than men. While many men hang around listlessly on the roads, women and children listen to the speeches and raise slog­ans with gusto. Among the crowds trooping in from other villagers too, women are the majority. Every woman protester knows what the agitation is about and why they oppose nuclear energy.A group of teachers from a school in Koodankulam, 3 km away, reels out scientific deta­ils to substantiate their arg­ume­nt against the nuclear plant. When reminded that a plant has been running in Kalpakkam for decades without any problems, they reply without batting an eyelid: “Sir, that is just 200 MW, here it will be 1000 MW and so the impact will be more if there is an explosion.”Even children speak of the dangers of nuclear energy. A schoolgirl, Ratnabala, in her letter to the Prime Minister, which she sings to the crowd, says, “We do not know about atom but we know about radiation.” All cultural program­mes here focus solely on the theme of nuclear energy.A fisherman here regrets not being able to go out to sea for a month, but is firm when he says, “We have been robbed of our livelihood. We have only our life. We will fight till this life ends.”