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

Vehicle
Phone
24
5
Only 6 percent cases come above 800 sq. feet. Roof of 67 percent of houses is
tiles, 21percent-asbestose, and 7 percent concrete. All households use firewood as
cooking fuel. In addition to firewood, 11percent use LPG and 2 percent kerosene.
Only 39percent of sample houses are electrified. Out of 200sample households,
74percent have septic tank for latrine, 14.5percent depend on pit and the rest 11.5percent
resort to open field. The distribution of sample households on the basis of household
amenities can be shown as below.
TV-28percent, Radio-63percent, Fan-22.5percent, Fridge-6.5percent Tape
recorder-25percent, Mixy-10percent, Vehicles-12percent, Phone-2.5percent.(Table2.6)
A number of tapping families enjoy financial helps for constructing houses and
improving residential facilities from People’s Plan and other governmental and non-
governmental institutions like churches.
Kuttappan has been working as a tapper for 18 years . Now he is 38 years old. He
is married, but does not have children. His hut has been built by wooden waste of saw
mills and broken sheets . Block panchayath allotted Rs. 35000/- for building house; he
has got Rs. 12000/- so far and completed the foundation. He cannot save money out of his
income from tapping, because it is insufficient to meet even the day-to-day expenses of
the household.
2.1.7 Earnings of Sample Households
Total annual earnings of sample households consist of income obtained from
different sources such as tapping, casual labour, agriculture and animal husbandry. Out of
12
2.5