Socio-cultural Processes and Livelihood Patterns at Tirurangadi - CDS

Table LIX
Rubber Cement plastic Forest Animal Textiles chemical Engi Electr Min building others
Agro
based
Husbandry
neering onics erals
26 3 0 1 23 0 8 1 16 3 0 10 49
Trade and commerce
Although industrialization is weak in the region, there is a substantial expansion of trade.
The growth of several large and mini-urban centers in the region, which we mentioned
earlier, is the result of the expansion of trade. The expansion of population subsisting on
trade was seen in the population figures also. We have already seen that Parappanangadi,
Tirurangadi and Kadalundi Nagaram were traditional trading centers with Tirurangadi
chantha being one of the premier chanthas in South Malabar. This primacy appears to
have continued into recent times also, with two major changes, the old Tirurangadi
chantha declined and chemmad began to develop, and the marketing centre in the old
Parappanangadi gradually shifted to Neduva. This shift was apparently the result of the
growth of road and rail links in the region, which has been discussed before. The factors
that facilitated the dependence of thee population on the market, discussed above also
facilitated the growth of new trading centers. These trading centers that started growing
from the seventies include large ‘departmental stores’, hypermarkets and several margin
free markets, numerous shopping complexes which include a number of stores, textile
centers, video-VCD-DVD libraries, computer centers that include internet cafes, apart
from a number of computer technology centers , parallel colleges and other technical
institutes. The ‘family’ restaurants have appeared everywhere, and old teashops have
been replaced by bakery and cool bars, Ice cream stalls and fast food centers. There are a
number of large lodging house in Chemmad, Parappanangadi, Chelari and near
University Campus. There are also interior decoration showrooms, hardware shops, paint