Socio-cultural Processes and Livelihood Patterns at Tirurangadi - CDS

The implications of this rapidly spreading construction activity will be examined later. It
should be noted that the spread is uneven, across different sections of population. A
substantial number of the houses occupied by groups like asaris, kollans, thattans, and in
particular houses of mannans, Perumannans, kanakkans, cherumans, and nayadis and a
large number of Muslims are small, and majority of them are still tiled. A number of
them live in thatched sheds , and we saw a number of them in places like
Thayyilakkadavu, Pootherivalappu in Chelari, Chullikkunnu, Chullippara, Kodinji and
other areas. Majority of such houses, including thatched sheds, were either near grain
fields, or inaccessible rocky areas. There was a whole colony of cherumans in thatched
sheds in the Government Poramboke land near Kollam chena in Peruvallur Panchayat. A
few houses of occupational castes like thattans and kollans are now in reinforced
concrete, but this was because some members of the family are working in the Gulf.
Such people appear to have moved away from the rocky regions or muddy fields. A
typical case is a family of goldsmiths in Cherumukku in Nannambra who migrated from
Thattarkandi in Ullanam and settled in a forest region close to the paddy fields called
palarambukadu, became servants of a rich landlord and then shifted to a better house. A
number of them have got lands under the land reforms, and some them acquired land
after michabhoomisamaram or the struggle for excess land after land ceiling, but there a
still a number of people without a legally acquired plot, but surviving because of the
sympathy of the local people.
Walking took us to a number of housing colonies. There appears to be three kinds of
colonies. One is traditional settlements of certain occupational groups or castes in a
particular paramba. Parambas mentions as that of specific caste groups such as
mannarakkal paramba, thattarkandi paramba, perunkollan puraya, aasaripparamba etc.,
belong to this category. In Peruvallur there are such parambas where kanakkans alone
stay. There is a paramba in Devathiyal in Thenjippalam in which kuravans live. There is