But the dole is not sufficient to cover even the basic screening expenses at the nearby International Cancer Centre at Neyyur run by the Kanyakumari Medical Mission Hospital. “The incidence of cancer at Periyavilai seems unusually high,” says Dr Sudhakar, head of the radiotherapy department at the hospital, citing the WHO norms for cancer prevalence in India as one per 1,000 people. According to hospital statistics, three patients from the village were diagnosed with cancer in 2002, three in 2003, and one each in 2005 and 2006.

Sudhakar says the fall in the number of cancer cases from the village in the past two years could be because the patients are seeking treatment elsewhere. As the 50-bed hospital has trouble dealing with the flow of complicated cases from the region, the villagers are turning to the Thiruvananthapuram-based Regional Cancer Centre, about two hours from Kanyakumari. The taxi ride costs them about Rs 1,500 and the treatment too is expensive.

While various studies of regions containing monazite in Kerala (by the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd., the Board of Research in Nuclear Sciences, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre) have been conducted, one such study pegs the average radiation dose to about four times the normal exposure. Another research among 75,000 consecutive births found the overall malformation rate to be around 1.5 per cent, “which is comparable to malformations observed in most international studies and the multicentric study done in India”.

But given the high incidence of cancer at Periyavilai, villagers are reluctant to buy these findings. They have demanded studies by a “neutral” body, better medical facilities close to their village and financial assistance. Perhaps, somebody will listen.