Kerala endured a shock after three members of a family decided to end life in fear of a backlash from usurers from whom they borrowed money. The horrendous incident that shook the senses happened in Kadinamkulam in the Trivandrum district. The family decided to self-immolate after they found it impossible to repay the money borrowed. Over the years, Rameshan who committed suicide took nearly 10 lakhs with interest that burgeoned to an impossible 60 lakhs. No perfect math can solve this rise and one may lose his/her sense if they try. The cruel run of minting money with ruthless interest rates took away many lives in the last five years alone. The government stays idle with no clear plan to wipe out the blood money makers in the state.

Kerala government once weaved serious plans to control the illegal usurers through the much famed “Operation Kubera.” The operation was rolled after a family of five in Trivandrum committed suicide following a similar threat from usurers. Riding on the initial spirit, the government then conducted 18000 raids followed by 4500 registered cases. Even 2500 people got arrested. But over the years, the famed policy lost its sheen allowing the usurers to rise back from death. Now the coterie of blood money makers is trying their cruel best to regain power in the capital city, while the lawmakers sit idle. However lucid you warn, the rural belt still tilts in favor of usurers and ends up losing all. The reams of paperwork in banks and the labor involved have distanced many normal citizens giving rise to more shylocks in town.

Most of the illegal money winds up in such organizations run by usurers. The police are no novices and can easily read this but they seldom act. Behind the veneer of lending money, usurers are mafia-run organizations that employ any third-grade act to recover back their blood money. The lives lost in Kadinamkulam should be a revelation for the idle sitters in government. No face-saving act will eradicate such demons from society, but strongly wielded policies that hit where it clearly hurts.