Rural Dynamics and Livelihoods

Rural dynamics in Tamilnadu in its various aspects has been studied during the past four years by the research team at IDA. The transitional process of Tamil villages during the past three decades is being mapped out in detail. The changes that are essentially covered in these studies include the physical and social aspects of production and distribution in the villages. While changes in crop pattern, relations in production, pattern of resource flows into the village societies, changes in the irrigation organization of the villages are some important aspects of these studies. These studies essentially look into the nature and functioning of these organizations in the past and their current forms. An important aspect of this programme is the added emphasis given to the process of change in its social aspects in the irrigation institutions. The study was carried out and completed in about fifteen villages spread across the state covering almost all the regions. The study was funded through the Kerala Research Programme on Local Level Development, Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram by the Dutch Government. Rural transformation involves a detailed mapping of livelihoods of the people. Livelihoods of people (across various economic, social and gender groups) were mapped for major states in the country by marshalling available secondary data with a specific emphasize on dalits, tribals and women. This study was supported and published by HIVOS. The livelihoods of the rural population in Tamilnadu was assessed and reported to the Tamilnadu Corporation for Development of Women for its proposed Tamilnadu Empowerment and Poverty Reduction Project loan from the World Bank. Yet another study focused exclusively on the livelihoods of the cashew growers and processors in various states in India and mapped the supply and the entire value chain of that commodity. IDA collaborated with the Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai, Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram and International Institute for Environment Development, London in the project entitled “Gender, Markets and Livelihoods in the Context of Globalisation: A Study of the Cashew Sector in South India”.

One major threat to the livelihoods of the agricultural labourers and the small and marginal farmers in our state is due to the breakdown of the community management of water bodies, especially tanks in our state. IDA prepared a research report entitled `Customary Rights and their Relation to Modern Tank Management in Tamilnadu’ for Development Centre for Alternative Policies, New Delhi.

IDA surveyed nearly seventy thousand tribal households spread across the state and prepared a report for the Tribal NGO network of Tamilnadu .The survey focused mainly on the socio economic conditions of tribal population of the state.