Socio-cultural Processes and Livelihood Patterns at Tirurangadi - CDS

took place. The decline of the agricultural operations and household industry, and the
growth of a commercial consumerist economy resulted in the transformation of even
production units into consumption units, which meant that even those women who were
productive laborers were eliminated. Gulf migrations also reinforced the concept of
family labor, as it became an effective means of transacting and consuming the
remittances. All these resulted in the swelling of ‘non-workers’, a category that is the
creation of an essentially consumerist economy.
The human geographical perspective outlined above implies the maximum utilization of
the human labor power of the area. Obviously this has to start from the existing labor
units that are the households who are still actively involved in agriculture, and those who
are prepared to cultivate the land provided they are given the land and other means. The
present patasekhara samitis consist mainly of patta holders, who are often marginal
cultivators. Those who are traditional cultivators have been the downtrodden groups, and
they are the needy, and have the necessary skills and knowledge to undertake the job.
One should remember that hey were the people employed to transform the waterlogged
patasekharams to cultivation in earlier timed, and their role in such hostile conditions is
remembered by old farmers even now. What they need is the necessary advanced
knowledge. There are also major group of small cultivators, tilling their own land and
have taken other lands on lease, and they can be similarly developed. Memories of old
farmers indicate collective action by all farmers having plots in a patam to bring the
entire patam to cultivation, solidarity, that is, by their own admission is missing today. It
should be noted that even when agricultural plots are independent, they have managed
their water and resources collectively, and hence, the principle of collective action
becomes important, especially in such areas as the large patasekharams. The depressed,