socio-economic profile of rubber tappers in the small holding sector

the Kanjirappally panchayath. The specific objectives are:
A) to assess the living conditions of rubber tappers in the study area,
B) to analyse the labour market, the level of wage and wage structure of rubber tappers,
C) to examine the role of women tappers and to assess their further scope of
employment in this sector and
D) to evaluate the role of institutions in providing training to tappers.
1.4 Methodology and Sources of the study
The period covered by the study is 1990’s. The social and
economic status of rubber tappers in the study area along with the changes in tapping
technology over the past years and the factors responsible for the non- adoption of these
improved technologies are closely examined. The land area, housing condition and the
house hold management, per capita income, educational status, house hold debt, savings,
consumption pattern etc.are being considered as the indicators of the general living
conditions of a rubber tapper .
This is a development oriented micro level study at panchayath level. According to
1991 Census data, the total population of the panchayath is 37017 and the total area of the
panchayath is 5316.6 hectares of which the area under rubber consists of 4803 hectares.
The panchayath consists of 7403 households. Out of these 2804 households come under
the selected four wards. Majority of these households are small growers and the estimated
number of tappers in this panchayath is 875 .A major share of the population depend,
directly or indirectly, on rubber cultivation for their livelihood. Therefore this research
work is a part of the development studies of rubber cultivation areas. As only four wards
of the panchayath are brought under the analysis, it is a micro level study also.
The present study is mostly based on primary data collected in a survey. .For the