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Road and transport.
Transport is the major problem in the Kalvarayan hills. Only a few villages benefit from facilities
such as Karialoor, Vellimalai, Serapetu, and Karunmandhurai. The rest of the villages do not have any
transport facilities. Distances between one village and an other are about 3 or 5 kilometers and the path
is very hilly. This lack of connection between villages makes tribal communities unaware about new developments
but it also causes major problems in the field of sanitation and education.
Education.
Apart the 5 pre-schools (Balvadi), for under five years old children, ran by Community Seva Centre, there are no pre-school in Kalvarayan Hills. Moreover and due to poverty there is no qualified teacher and added to that, parents are also not able to send their children for education due to there poor financial situation. Only the Vatapudur village and Arampoondi village have primary schools and the distance covered to these areas ranges from 10 km to 16 km. But the primary school has no hostel facilities for both children (Boys &Girls) and so most of the female children stop their studies and work at home or stay as baby-sitters. The male children work in forests and graze the cattle, hence, as far as studies are concerned the children are unable to continue it. Only one or two people have completed their degrees and have taken up jobs, among them, the Village assistant’s son, Mr. Jayaram, who has achieved his Bachelor of Arts and Law and who is now practicing as a lawyer.
Diseases and medical practices.
Due to the area being hilly, even after digging 100 feet, drinking water is not found. Some areas possess hand pumps and most of the people consume dwell waters but none of them boil water before drinking even though the water is not that clean. Indeed, the same water is used for drinking & bathing. As a result, people are easily prone to water bone diseases up to 40% and unfortunately hospitals and primary health centers are situated far away in Maavadipattu. Even there and the health care system does not functioning properly and many village people complain that the health workers in the centre are not delivering any care in the most isolated villages. Most of the tribal people are using country drugs (Naturopathy) which is quite effective for the small troubles but this situation is quite worrying, when we take into account that the delivery of baby is done at home itself. Fortunately, handicaps and mentally-retarded people are very few but anemic babies can be found more. The average weight of the babies born here ranges from 1.5 kg to 2.00 kg.
Tribal people believe in spirits, ghosts and wicked practices. When they are not aware of certain diseases, they will blame the wicked power, perform poojas and give offerings to the God to get rid of them.
Health and Hygiene.
Since the houses are situated on slopes, rains wash off the garbage and waste materials and the villages have neither drainage facilities, nor proper sanitation and therefore people go for open-air defecation, which is not safe and hygienic for health.
Houses.
More than 75%of the houses are made of bamboo and less than 25% of houses are made of thatches, woods and bricks. Each village consists of 50 to 60 houses and some people built their houses in farmland and look after land for daily food.
Agriculture.
People toiled to make these forests into lands for civilization. Since, there is no way for them to save the rainwater, doing agriculture is a mirage for them due to lack of irrigation facilities. Seasonal cultivation crops such as samai, thenai, rice, tapioca, varagu (grams) are cultivated here and these crops should be cultivated once a year. Due to the broker's interference in their cultivation, the people are unable to save anything. Even they are even not able to meet their cultivation expenses. The people who work as coolies suffer a lot. A man who toils from morning to evening in a land gets only 50 rupees a day and woman gets only 30 rupees. For survival reasons, people takeover jobs in the adjoining areas such Erode, Karnataka and Kerala. They are engaged in doing menial jobs such as quarry work, building construction (masons/coolies) and labor work in agriculture fields. Since they do not have much income they borrow money for interest at the rate of 10%. Finally they are unable to bear the burden of huge interest and lose their properties to repay the amount.
Marriage system and customs.
The female child is married at the age of 12 or 13 years and males get married at the age of 15 or 18 years. They marry their own community people from the hill areas. Polygamy practice is common and after the death of her husband a widow can marry her brother in law. Similarly, a widower can also marry another woman. Some people perform love marriage outside the hills and come back and settle down at Kalvarayan Hills. During ancient times, the male gave six gunny bags of grains and two hundred rupees as dowry to female. But now people return this procedure to man by giving dowry for their daughter/sister. They repay this borrowed money by means of interests and loans and become in-debtors. Only the male has right for the property, none of the women shall have a share. Considering their lack of utility and the charge they represent for their family, the elder are often put at the bench of the community.Regarding the conflicts, some people solve their family conflicts among themselves or are solved by the “Moopar” (meaning “village elder”) whereas some others bring the case to courts. Various problems or conflicts such as Husband/wife problems, property conflicts, land misunderstood and others are brought into notice.
Religious and festivals.
People here are mostly Hindu and they pray and worship their family God Mariamman & Karupusamy. It is pity to hear and state that, people borrow money for interests to give offering at Pazhani Temple and Thirupathi Temple. They celebrate Chithirai festival with fast and used to collect money from each household. They offer pigs, goats, cows and liquor to their God Karupasamy. At present, Kottapudur and Aarrampoondi villages have a church where there is no religious practices taking place but people visit the churches.
Attitudes and aptitudes.
People consume alcohol, smokes biddies and cigars which are very harmful for health. They feel and believe that alcohol helps in relieve the pain of hard work and as a result they consume alcohol beyond their income. It disturbs the normalcy of the individual and families are suffering a lot from this plague.
Livestock.
There is a mixture of both vegetarians and non-vegetarian. The main food grains for the people are varaku, samai, ragai and rice and they hardly take fresh vegetables, meat and prepare tasty food nor will they add green leafy and dals. Their food is not diversified and it is hard to conceive how it would be else. As a result, most of the women and children are anemic.
Food habits.
There is a mixture of both vegetarians and non-vegetarian. The main food grains for the people are varaku, samai, ragai and rice and they hardly take fresh vegetables, meat and prepare tasty food nor will they add green leafy and dals. Their food is not diversified and it is hard to conceive how it would be else. As a result, most of the women and children are anemic.
Electricity.
Most of the villages have no electricity supply. In some villages only few houses have one light service system. More over, the strong wind and the heavy rains are the cause of frequent electricity failure and the power cuts imposed by the government are considerable.
Market.
The SANDHAI (weekly market) takes place on every Friday at Vellimalai and Karmandurai villages and people from the surrounding villages come to purchase vegetables and other small products. But if they need to purchase any valuable articles they have to go to plain areas.
Thrift and savings
The habit of savings is zero among the people. We have implemented Self-Help-Group in five villages and small savings have been made. But their income is very low and they are unable to allocate a lot of money for savings and for their future needs. |
