Livelihood analysis of IRULA tribe of Attappady
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Date
2012
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Department of Agricultural Extension, College of Agriculture, Vellayani
Abstract
Tribesfolk of Attappady are the most backward among the vulnerable groups of Kerala. Their economy is traditional in nature, depending mainly on land and forest. The valley was not open to outsiders till the 1950s. However, the land utilisation pattern of Attappady drastically changed since then owing to massive in-migration of people from the plains to these areas in search of land for cultivation and for starting plantations. Inappropriate implementation of schemes and lack of adequate technological support resulted in a drastic decline in the livelihood options of the tribespeople. This study entitled “Livelihood analysis of Irula tribe of Attappady” was an attempt to analyse the livelihood of one of the most prominent tribal group in Attappady. The study was conducted in Palakkad district of Kerala. A sample of 120 tribespeople were selected randomly from three panchayats of Attappady Tribal Developmental Block namely Agali, Pudur and Sholayur .The study indicated that most of the tribespeople belonged to the young and middle age group and seventy eight per cent were having 5-7 members in their family. Among the respondents 35 per cent had primary school level family educational status and 62.5 per cent of them are insecure with respect to food security status. 52.5 per cent of the tribespeople had high level of environmental orientation and 77.5 per cent of them were non users of alcohol. The self confidence level was medium among majority of tribespeople (92.5%) and 65 per cent of them belonged to the medium level category with respect to their political orientation.
The study revealed that two third ie. 65 per cent of the tribespeople are categorized as low with respect to human capital and 60 per cent of them belongs to high social capital group. About 60 per cent of tribespeople belong to a category of low with respect to their natural capital and 55 per cent of them are categorized as low based on the physical capital. About 55 per cent of Irula tribespeople were categorised as low in the case of financial capital and 45 per cent of them were rated as high.Regarding the contribution of component capitals, financial capital is rated as the component which is contributing to the highest to the livelihood capital index ie.33.9%. The second highest contribution to the livelihood capital index is by social capital(33.6%). The third highest contributor to the livelihood capital index is physical capital (20.2%) followed by human capital (11.4%) and natural capital (0.8%).
Classification of tribespeople based on livelihood capital index reveals that about 55 per cent of the tribespeople has got high livelihood capital index and 45 per cent of them is categorised as low.Greater than 50 per cent of the tribespeople were socially and economically deprived of important functionings and they are way behind general population in almost all developmental indicators.
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