Socio-cultural Processes and Livelihood Patterns at Tirurangadi - CDS

areas, and then we should clearly demarcate the areas where it can be feasibly grown. All
these are part of a detailed human ecological planning, which becomes necessary in any
scheme for environmentally sustainable development.
There is another feature of human geography indicated by history. We find references to
a tradition of perunkollans and many alas, some of which survive even now, but without
work. Probably the last generation of the skilled workers remains, and there is the
possibility of discovering iron deposits. The possibility of reviving iron works to suit
modern industrial needs may still be explored. Similarly history also points to the use of
clay first to make pottery and then tiles. There is a potter’s colony even now, and there
have been several attempts at setting up tile factories, some of which run today. It is
possible to build ceramics industries at an appropriate level. The third is Coir, for which
the natural facilities and the required expertise are available, which can be further
developed. Similar possibilities can be further developed through a detailed survey of the
mineral deposits in the region.
The most important part of the human geography is the human element in it. Despite the
talk about ‘Human resources’, human beings are probably the most underdeveloped,
underutilized category even in the conventional social engineering exercises. This is
evident in a planning exercise that leaves out 77% of the population from the definition
of’ workers’ and plans for the entire population. More importantly, it has left out 95% of
the total population of women from the category of workers. Even if we leave out
children and very old people from this category, the category of non –workers will have a
substantially large number of able-bodied people, most of them now literate and having
elementary education, among the ‘non-workers’. We should also note the increasingly
high rate of marginalization of workers. Even if we assume that the census categories do
not represent the actual work pattern that exists among the people, it shows the
productive abilities of a substantially large number of people are underutilized. Regarding