Socio-cultural Processes and Livelihood Patterns at Tirurangadi - CDS

c) Attempts were made to codify the information gathered in the walking though
a process of classification and codification.
d) The next step involved the gathering of information on the needs, wants and
tastes of the people, by a serving a structured questionnaire in the households,
in the standard pattern of a survey. Obviously the effort was not to produce
quantitative data, as in a Census. The questionnaire concentrated on the
practice of their every day life, in the past and present.
e) The next step was to conduct karanavakkoottam in all the important centers in
the field, which were in the form of focused group discussions comprising
about 10-15 people. The research team had to moderate the discussions on the
basis of the concepts regarding the life and culture of the people which the
team had already arrived at, which helped them to codify the content of such
discussions.
f) Collection of primary and secondary data, from archival and other sources,
with the object of clarifying, comparing, and verifying the information already
thrown up through the earlier steps.
It is now necessary to go through the actual implementation of these steps in more detail.
Preparations
The project entitled ‘Socio-cultural processes and livelihood patterns at Tirurangadi’ was
sanctioned in March 2003, and its MOA came through in April 2003. The initial
preparations of the project were two-fold. The first was to get the necessary consent from
the field area itself and the second was to recruit a team of local volunteers. Consent from
the field area was important as it was not a project demanded by the people of the field
area, nor was it operated by the any Government agency. The field area consisted of
seven Panchayats, Vallikkunnu, Thenhippalam, Peruvallur, Munniyur, Tirurangadi,
Parappanangadi and Nannambra. Except Nannambra, the Panchayats were part of the
Tirurangadi assembly constituency. Politically six Panchayats are controlled by the UDF