Socio-cultural Processes and Livelihood Patterns at Tirurangadi - CDS

Table LXIX
Sectors
Plan funds
Plan proposals
Own funds Beneficiary
portion
Total
No. of
beneficiaries Expenditure
Agriculture 13393500 260000 3053108 16706608 2876 8304538
& allied
(49.71)
Industry 169000 10000 233000 412000 0 285000
(69.17)
Services 19147485 4712551 7161440 31021476 1544 18333280
(59.10)
Total 32709985 4982551 10447548 48140084 4420 26922818
(55.93)
SCP 471052 1392138 380000 6482890 66 3372140
(52.01)
Infrastructure 13871603 2294510 108000 16274113 54 11774800
sector
(72.35)
The above figures show that the expenditure on the primary sector has been the least in
the region and the expenditure on the infrastructures the most. Perhaps the most
impressive among such activities has been the effort to bring drinking water to elevated
regions (which has now been taken over by Jalanidhi). Many of the wells are useless and
the taps do not have water, that there was a serious thought to the problem is clear.
Another major area of the Panchayats is the formation of the self help groups under
Kutumbasree. A large number of groups have been organized, but many of them have
been dysfunctional. Often the primary objective appears to be to organize women under
the credit system, but rarely to bring them into serious productive labor. Stigma against
productive labour, typical of a commercial consumer oriented society, along with social
and religious restrictions on the mobility of women, has worked against the development
of kutumbasree as powerful productive units. The absence of an effective distribution
system has been another disabling factor. Hence the units are mainly functioning as
systems of micro credit, and treated as such to benefit the respective clientele sections by
the Panchayats. The political leaders of the region are great patrons of Information
Technology, primarily for its commercial and multimedia potential than its role in
production and research and also because of its use as the communication channel with