financial status of tribal peoples

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Financial Status of Tribal People-
Author: Nidheesh K B Posted: 16-09-2007 Comments: 0 Views: 2


WHO ARE TRIBALS?The word “tribal” or Adivasi brings to our mind a picture of half-naked men and women, with arrows and spears in their hands, feathers in their heads, and speaking an unintelligible language, their lives often combined with myths of savagery and cannibalism. However, any person having visited a tribal village will be surprised and thrilled to see a community living close to nature, peace-loving, equitable and with advanced cultural/social forms. Our knowledge about the tribals is very limited, leading us to believe many myths at the cost of their dignity. Even when majority of the communities in the world kept changing their life-styles, competed with each other and developed materialistic instincts to keep pace with the “progress” of the world, there were communities still living in line with their traditional values, customs and beliefs. The exploitative mindset of the mainstream society made these communities recede often into forests and high-altitude mountains, where they could continue to live in peace with Nature and their unpolluted surroundings. As the so-called civilized communities of the mainstream society neither could comprehend the values and ideals of these communities nor had the patience to understand their lifestyles, the mainstream world branded them variously as natives, uncivilized people, Aboriginals, Adivasis, Tribals, Indigenous people etc. In India, we mostly refer them as Adivasis/Girijans. In spite of the merciless treatment by the “civilized” men and the socio-economic perils faced by these communities all over the world, the tribals continue to live in the continents of Africa,Asia, North and South America and Australia.The Imperial Gazetteer of India, 1911, defines a tribe as a “collection of families bearing a common name, speaking a common dialect, occupying or professing to occupy a common territory and is not usually endogamous though originally it might have beenso”. Another definition of a tribe by D.N. Majumdar is that “a tribe is a collection of families or group of families bearing a common name, members of which occupy the same territory, speak the same language and observe certain taboos regarding marriage,profession or occupation and have developed a well-assessed system of reciprocity andmutuality of obligations”.Can the rural tribes manage their saving? Can the rural tribes aware about the schemes?These are questions that have engaged the attention of people trying to design microfinance products for the tribes. In the past the tribes were always addressed from the supply side through “schematic finance”, now we have reached a stage where we need patience to understand the financial status, financial flows, savings and their attributes in terms of security ,liquidity and risk-return relationship preferred by the rural tribes. It is known that not only the well to do, but also the tribes have patterns in income and expenditure and have evolved products that take care of these ups and downs in financial flows. The objective of the study was to understand the financial flows of the rural tribes so that a better design of savings and loan products in the microfinance sector can be planned.To fill up the gaps between inflows and outflows, the poor need intermediaries in the form of institutions that help them manage the flows. In allmost all villages the private moneylender performs this gap filling function .The debate between private money lenders and tribes are the common issues in the local economy.. The moneylender provides access to credit, and there are arguments that the image of the moneylender is unnecessarily tarnished in the literature( Chamala and Sharma, 2003) There are counter arguments on whether this fits with the development intervention to be undertaken [Chavan 2003]. There are arguments that because of traditional relationships of trust, it is almost impossible to replace the moneylender, but possible to redefine the relationship by providing an atmosphere for formal competition [Sriram 2002].There researchers focus on general poor but this paper concentrated on poor tribes.It is important to understand the roles of each of the players providing finance for the tribes and how they manage money.The most commonly used measure of poverty is based on income or consumption levels. People are considered BPL if their consumptionor income level falls below a minimum needed to meet the basic needs and wants. This level is defined as the “poverty line”. This definition differ from place to place and time to time.. Each country uses a definition appropriate to its level of development, societal norms and values In our country, Planning Commission estimates the proportion and number of poor separately for rural and urban sectors at the national and state levels based on the recommendations of committee members.. The committee members had defined the poverty line as the cost of an all-India average consumption basket at which the calorie norms are met [GoI 2002]. The norms were 2,400 calories per capita per dayfor rural areas and 2,100 calories for urban areas. These calorie norms were expressed in monetary terms as Rs 49.09 and Rs 56.64 per capita per month for rural and urban areas, respectively at 1973-74 prices. These figures were updated again with the consumer price indices (CPI) in 1994-95. The updated numbers are Rs 228 and Rs 305 per capita per month, for rural and urban areas, respectively [Pradhan and Subramanian 2001; G1993)..India has the largest concentration of tribal population in the world. The tribal are the children of nature and their lifestyle is conditioned by the eco-system. India due to its diverse ecosystems has a wide variety of tribal population. Tribes people constitute 8.14% of the total population of the country, numbering 84.51 million (2001 Census). There are 697 tribes notified by the Central Government under Article 342 of the Indian Constitution with certain tribes being notified in more than one State. More than half the Scheduled Tribe population is concentrated in the States of Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Jharkhand and Gujarat whereas in Haryana, Punjab, Delhi, Pondicherry and Chandigarh no community has been notified as a Scheduled Tribe. As per 2001 census there were 3.21 lakhs Scheduled Tribes in Kerala State The Tribal population in Kerala State is 2 of the total population in the State. The literacystatus of STs was 57.22in 1991 as against the general literacy rate of 89.81. Majorportion of the STs are seen in the districts Wayanad, Idukky and Palakkad. The povertyratio of the ST families estimated as on 31..03..1 998 was 35.89. This was 48.47asper the State Survey in 1992. Nearly 23of the tribal families are living within forestareas. There are 35 tribal communities in the State. Among them Paniyar (nearly 20) forms the majority. The Paniya and Adiya communities in Wayanad District are verybackward and most of them landless agricultural labourers. There are 5 Primitive tribalgroups (PTGs) viz., Kattunaikan, Cholanaikan, Koragas, Kadar and Kurumbas. These398 Groups are the most vulnerable communities among the tribals and are all below poverty Line. They constitute 5of the total tribal population in the State. As per the survey conducted in 1996-97 the population of PTGs was 16678 consisting of 4406 families. . They belong to 35 distinct communities including the primitive tribal groups such as Cholanaikan, Kattunaikans, Kurumbas, Kadars and Koragas. They constitute nearly 4.8% of the Scheduled Tribe population. There are 69,444 ST households in the State while in 1981 it was only 52,421. The present number of ST households is estimated around 84,000. The Scheduled Tribe Population is even more unevenly distributed in the Districts. Among the Districts Wayanad has the highest tribal Population nearly 36of the Tribal Population. Idukky and Palakkad account for another 26. The lowest representation of tribal population is in Alappuzha DistrictThis paper try to understand and map the financial flows of the tribes and how do they manage their money available to them? The paper is organised into five sections. Section II looks at the literature. Section III has the geographical setting, methodology, sample size, design and administration of the questionnaire. Section IV contains findings of the study. We conclude with Section V – discussing the issues that need to be addressed at a larger scale and also how this study can be taken forward, while identifying the limitations of the current study.Literature ReviewThe Governments and Financial intermediaries play a key role for uplifting the tribes in our country.The state has intervened in this segment to address the issuesof inequity from time to time. It has not only created institutional mechanisms, but also has had targeted schemes that help the tribes for eradicating their poverty and economic upliftment. However, most of the efforts have been supply-driven and have looked at the credit and not the savings needs of the poor. The microfinance institutions (MFIs) haveFinancial Status of Tribes A Study in Wayanad DistrictA village-level study conducted in Wayanad district of Kerala attempted to map the financial status of the tribes and the funds flow indicated that the overall asset-savings-income profile of the tribes was not alarming. However, most of the assets and savings are liquid, forcing the poor to borrow at high cost. The study reveals the failure of financial institutions to penetrate the savings and loan market. It also reconfirms earlier findings that health-related expenses are one of the major causes of indebtedness amongst the tribesStill now reliable financial services are not widely available for offering of credit by MFIs is pigeonholed into the ‘grameen’ type with little flexibility and the self-help grouptype with more flexibility, concluded by (Smita Parhi and M S Sriram 2006) and they addressed the issues of financial flow.The loan products available in the formal sector do not address the needs of the poor.Therefore, there is still a gap in the needs of the poor and the offerings [Fisher and Sriram 2002]. They need money in lumps and finding waysto meet such requirements is a challenge. Savings is nothing but the choice of not consuming cash. This is a fundamental and unavoidable first step in money management. We should look at issues pertaining to savings and credit together, to understandthe needs of the poor [Rutherford 2002].There are some recent studies focusing on financial flows of the poor. The MicroSave-Africa has done a series of studies toprovide financial toolkits for bankers and others. These studies recognise the growing interest in introducing savings products in MFIs. The MicroSave and the consultative group to assist the poor (CGAP) collaborated to study the dynamics of institutionalchange in transformation of a microcredit institution to a MFI [Wright, Christen and Martin 2000]. They studied Association for Social Advancement (ASA), which is an important model for microcredit institutions planning to introduce savings products.The ASA was a microcredit institution working only on credit delivery and recovery system based on grameen methodology. Rutherford (2000) argues that the best way to designa product is to ask people about their own preferences, because they are the best judges. . Ruthven and Kumar (2002) argue that the success of the moneylenders, deposit collectors, pawnbrokers who reach people where others fail, is in providing lump sums instantly, with no security and also regular savings devices on a sufficiently small-scale basis. There are many tricks that the formal institutions need to learn from informal players if they want to widen their client base to reach the poor . On savings, Wright (1999) argues that in many instances the poor have “illiquidity preference” which is acommitted savings mechanism that prohibits them from withdrawing in response to trivial needs and allows them to escape from the demands of their relatives for loans or assistance. It was also found that poor give importance to security and liquidityaspect of savings and do not look for significant returns.Rutherford (2002) did a one year study using financial diaries to understand the financial flows of 42 low-income Bangladeshi families. The study revealed that better managed MFIs were considered “reliable” among the formal and informal financial service providers The factors associated with becoming poor were quite different from the factors associatedwith escaping poverty. Therefore, the programmes of the state needed to get an appropriate focus [Krishna 2003]. A study in,12 villages of Rajasthan found that diversification of income sources; irrigation and information on various opportunities were the key factors in overcoming the poverty trap. The social factors that pull them into the poverty trap were mostly not in their control. Even the programmes of state aimedat poverty reduction were unable to neutralise the negative effects of these social factors. Many times assistance from the state was unable to trickle down to the grassroots. However, Krishna (2003) has argued that the state support through poverty reductionschemes had a positive effect in making poverty more tolerable. A similar study in Gujarat showed a different picture. Gujarat being economically sound and more industrialised, it was expected a priori that poverty reduction would Rajasthan [Krishna et al 2003]. The authors argued that falling into poverty is not just the converse of escaping from poverty but more than that. It is evident that there is considerable interest amongst scholar in examining the financial flows of the poor. Our study is different from what we have reviewed. It focuses on regions recognized, as backward. The objective of our study is twofold.1 To understand the financial flow of tribes through empirical analysis. 2 To study the saving habits and credit behaviours..MethodologyA questionnaire was designed to capture data on various parameters. The design ensured that we use significant events in the last decade as time markers to gather financial data on how these events were managed. We also had asset purchase and sale as additionalmarkers. These helped us in associating the financial flows – savings, borrowings (both formal and informal) with the ups and downs of a family,and in triangulating the indebtedness data.Sample selection: choice of the area and village: This study has its focus on families defined as tribal. All families under the “below poverty line (BPL)” category fell into our focus population. It is not our intention to debate the methodology adopted by the state in defining the tribal. As the idea of the study is to look at how tribal managetheir financial flows This is based on the presumption that the findings would be usedfor developing financial products that would be offered to a continuum of clients from the very poor upwards. The artificial boundary of a poverty line is only helpful in drawing the sample. While we wanted to base the study in some of the most backward districts in India, the choice of Wayanad was made purposively. The selection of wayanad was driven not only by its general backwardness, but also the geographical backgrounds . Wayanad formed November 1 1980 as the 12th district and most backward district in Kerala,it is 3.79% urbanized. Wayanad district stand first in the case of adivasi population(about 36%) among other district in the state. Design of questionnaire: For collecting household data, a detailed questionnaire was designed, with a view to capture financial flows of families over a long horizon of time. The base data were the demographic and asset profile of a household. Other data were built around this to get the financial history of the household. We collected details of income, indebtedness and savings. We sought inputs from local resource persons to include questions/ asset in the checklists specific to the geographical region.We collected information on the income flows, agricultural land, physical assets, saving habits, loan transactions and the details of the events that happened in the family in the last 10 years. Although the questionnaire was not divided into different stages, each question collected specific information. This collectively gave an idea of the financial flows of a family. In the first part we collected data on the general family details, including income, inward and outward remittances. The second part collected information on landholding and details of other physical assets, including dwelling and livestock details. In this process we captured the information on financial transactions while purchasing or selling assets, the mode of financing and the purpose of purchase. The third part focused on the physical assets, where we captured the information on mode of financing, purpose of purchase, and its value. If any asset has been sold, we found the amount realised from the sale. By seeking this information, we tried to understand the process of acquisition and sale of assets and the circumstances under which they are acquired or sold. In the fourth part, we captured savings and indebtedness detailsof the family. We also asked the respondents to rank the sources with whom they had savings and loan transactions to get a feedback on their comfort levels, details on accessibility, costs, security and liquidity of the products they used. We also askedthem the amount of maximum savings and loans and the source where it has been parked or drawn in the last 10 years. This roughly gave us an idea of the reach of the financial institutions and at the same time told us about the extent of convenience and faith the poor placed on these sources. It helped us find which of the formal or informal source provided most acceptable product. Similar details were collected on indebtedness. In the last part we collected details of the events that occurred in the last 10 years – such as marriage of the children, health expenses and purchase of assets or funeral expenses. These event details capture the financial flows involved with birth, death, education, marriage and emergencies. This gave insights into how such events are financed and managed. The questions on which we had difficulty in getting data were about health-related problems and expenses. They were unwilling to talk about these issues. These details were collected in a circumspect manner. Data were not forthcoming on some sensitive issues as well. As this is a tribal area, there is a prevalence of bride price as against dowry in the plains In this area people had a small piece of land, productivity waslow and most of the produce was consumed. The levels of monetisation were also low. Imputing a value for self-consumption was therefore difficult. Using events as time markers were useful, but that gave us the data on financial flows at the event point. However, several respondents were unable to articulate their outstandings, due to low levels of awareness on aspects of repayment and the split between interest and principal.The data was collected using men and women investigators. We found it was better to use women investigators for data collection. Using women helped us because: – Respondent-women available for a longer part of the day. Therefore, chances of drawing a blank or need to revisit the household were minimal. – Women had the time to patiently answer the questionnaire and were able to recall details more clearly than men, and respondedto women investigators well. – Women were not suspicious and did not have a tendency to hide. However, the downside of collecting data exclusively from women put a question on accuracy. Ideally this data should have been triangulated by a short interview of the men. But due to constraints of time, this could not be done.Findings1 Major sources of money transaction in the village are Village moneylenders,Shop keepers; Family and relatives, Banks , Co-operatve Society and SHG.2 General household and employment: We used data from50 households from which we collected information. These 50households had total 226 individuals – an average of around five persons per household. The basic demographics are given in Table 2. Usually areas of poverty are associated with a high prevalence of child labour. Our pilot indicates that, of the 85 children (under the age of 15), 45 were perusing some vocation or the other, mainly in agriculture, procurement of minor forest produce (MFP) andtravelling to town to work in non-farm enterprises. Of the others above the age of 18, there were only six persons who claimed to be unemployed. Only 45 children of the total 85 under the age of 15 are studying. The other 40 children who were not in school mighthave either been employed in some chore or the other, which the families chose not to reveal or were too young to start work. The levels of education were low (Table 3). Wayanad is listed under one of the most educationally backward districts in the country. There was nobody who had attained education beyond the primary level and about two-thirds of the people were illiterate. Most of the employment opportunities were seasonal in nature. Given this, there is an opportunity to introduce financial products that aid the smoothening of cash flows of these poor people. The details of the employment status are given in Table 4.3 Income: Households had income from agricultural and non-agricultural sources. The income from non-agricultural sources was higher than from agriculture (Table 5). Continuous drought for the past years and non-availability of cultivable land might have driven them to seek income from non-agricultural activities Many persons from the village go to other city to work with non-farm enterprises. Connection with the city has played a major role in diversification of livelihood opportunities. The new income streams discovered out of diversification from the present job has pumped in extra cash to the regular cash flow . High debt had also forced them to come out of the villageand look for alternatives that fetch them regular cash flows. Sometimes the income is in kind. We captured this by converting the flows into monetary terms. For instance, grass and MFP collected, contributed significantly to the income flow of the household. These were monetised. In the upper end households where the income is more than Rs 4,000 per capita we found that more than one member of the family got regular work in city. Some of them also had land, adding to their flows. Although we did not find households abandoning agriculture, Table 6 shows that agriculture is not lucrative and finding wageemployment seems to be an alternative. The households falling in the lower income group, continued depending on agriculture, and were unable to move out of the poverty trap.4 Assets : The assets owned by the families are given in Table 7. From the list we see that apart from utensils, cots and rudimentary farm implements, there is pretty little in the form of assets that the households had. The most significant asset in the households were silver ,gold ,handcrafts materials etc . It was found during the field visit that most of the assets listed were not usually sold. People in the village prefer to borrow in times of crisis at fairly high rates of interest, rather than liquidate any assets and if they need to sell their assets they would first sell livestock but would not touch the jewellery. All respondents had a dwelling unit of their own. Some of them had two dwelling units, but the families used both. None of the families had leased out land, while several families had leased in land.5 Borrowings: The profile of borrowings is shown in Table 8. The maximum number of loan accounts was with moneylenders. However, the average size of a loan from moneylender was smaller than other sources. In all, borrowing from moneylenderand other informal sources accounted for almost 85 per cent of the number of loans and 80 per cent of the amounts borrowed. Borrowing from relatives and from commercial banks had a significantly high average loan size. There was no significant difference between the source from which Group I and Group II had borrowed.4 It appears that SHG was not an option for Group I households. The formal sector has been unable to reach this segment of the population. The reasons might pertain to transaction size and costs. Even the SHGs were working with the upper end of the poor families. When we compared loan amounts and borrower profiles, we found that the commercial banks have a bias towards making loans for productive assets (Table 9). The bank had given oneloan for social consumption5 out of five loans made. The health related expenses, contributed to higher expenditure. The borrower portfolio was diverse for the moneylender. The moneylender had extended loans for consumption, social consumption,health expenses, buying assets, and also to meet charges for litigation. The moneylender loans for assets were mainly for the purchase of livestock. All SHG loans were for consumption. People borrowed mainly for consumption, social consumption and health-related expenses from the family sources. The community usually funded the social events in the village – the expectation was that the recipient would pitches in when therewas a similar event in others’ family. Therefore, the borrowings for marriage and funerals were usually from informal sources. Only one loan from the family sources was for buying assets. Tables 9 and 10 indicate that people borrowed from moneylenders for asset purchase. Borrowing from moneylenders for emergency purposes, is understandable, but the larger share in asset purchase indicates that there is scope for formal institutions to step in. We should also note that the most frequent purpose for borrowing is “health-related”. 6 Savings: Without the awareness and complex legal requirements of banks most of the savings in SHGs. There was one recurring deposit account. Savings in SHGs were on the weekly basis. Many members were irregular in their savings. Even this was irregular as there is no regular income flow in the household. So whenever there was a little money available with the women either by selling the MFP, vegetables or bamboo, they preferred to save in the safe earthen container inside the house but away from their husbands’ eyes. From the data on financing of asset purchase and financing of significant events, it was evident that these savings are very sparingly used for outflows. Sale of assets and jewellery was not seen at all in the sample households. Savings are perceived to be a different compartment that was to be used sparingly. An overall look at the income, savings and borrowings data indicates that the level of indebtedness is not alarming (the figure). In almost all cases the overall borrowing was less than their annual income, and far less than the total worth of the assets they had. In this sense no respondent suffered from a negative net-worth. However, what seemed to be very prevalent is stashing money away in pots, as there were no alternatives available for savings. Formal sources were accessed only by a handful of people and they also seemed to have multiple accounts. This problem was faced both in the borrowing and the savings departments. Table 11 shows the savings of the poor in institutionsCONCLUSIONSMapping the financial flow of the poor requires careful investigation of the income and expenditure patterns and the most important is the involvement of the people themselves. This paper illustrates the results of a study conducted in one village of Kerala which was under the influence of natural calamities and farmers problems for last years and has experienced some rainfall this year. But that area resolve some of the important problems by way of government programes and individual cooperation , particularly pertaining to wage employment and helped them diversify their livelihood sources. Although there arevarious studies conducted to identify the factors that drag people into the poverty trap, the major findings of this study are that the overall asset-savings-income profile of the poor in this village give a comfort while compared to the indebtedness. However, most of the assets and savings are illiquid, forcing the poor to borrow at high cost and service such loans. The study indicates the failure of institutions to penetrate the savings and loan market. Even if we assume that the “emergency” needs would be met by the local sources, the institutions (including microfinance mechanisms like SHGs) were unable tomake inroads into financing non-emergency planned needs such as asset purchase and house construction. There is a need for an appropriately designed savings product – a major attribute of the product must be safety. Liquidity and return does not seem tobe a concern as most savings is in a “pot” stashed away. It is important to note that significant borrowings also come from relatives thereby reinforcing the social bonding in the community that we studied. This is also evidenced in the way marriages and other social events are financed. The poor seem to be smoothening their interest costs by resorting to informal, zero cost borrowings for certain purposes. This has an importantindication for us. There has been a very strong fungibility argument for pricing loans uniformly, by MFIs. This is seen both in the Grameen style and SHG type of organisations. One of the arguments is that this takes care of adverse usage of credit (the oft-cited example is subsidy based production credit being used for social consumption). However, the pattern of borrowing and the use to which the poor have put the funds in our sample indicate that if we can ensure the end use, there is a case for differentialpricing of loans. It also proves that informal structures ensure that even in consumption, this could be limited by social systems – the example being the non-availability of finance from the social system for second and subsequent marriages. The study re-confirms the findings of earlier studies – the most killing expense is health related. This leads the poor into further indebtedness. The borrowings for health expenses form one ofthe most significant chunks of borrowing. We also noticed that there was no significant difference between the upper end of the poor and the lower end in having access to formal institutions both for savings and loans and in either case the dealings with these institutions were limited. A combination of factors like information about income opportunities, accessible and cheap healthcare facilities, credit on affordable terms and awareness about the unnecessary expenses on social functions would helpthem in managing their money judiciously. Although we could gather valuable information but still there are certain things missing and the study does not capture likethe relation between the cost of borrowing with and without collateral – particularly with moneylenders, long-term flows and whether these households have been better-off as compared to a decade ago and the effect of diversification of income streams in dealing with difficult situations – particularly considering that the sample area was affected by severe droughts in the past three years. A significant gap was also found in the lack of data collected on current expenditure.Profile Of Wayanad DistrictDistrict WayanadArea (in sq.km.) 2,131Population 7,80,619Males 3,91,273Females 3,89,346Sex ratio : Females/1000 995Density of Population 366Per Capita Income (in Rs) 34,123Literacy rate 85.25%; Male 89.77%; Female 80.72%Coastal line in km. NilWater bodied area in ha. 936Forest area in ha. 78787Assembly Constituencies 1. Kalpatta 2. North Wayanad 3. Sulthan BatheriTaluks Head Quarters No. of VillagesVaithiri Vaithiri 18Sulthan Batheri Sulthan Batheri 15Mananthavadi Mananthavadi 16Live stock Population (2000 Census)Cattle Buffaloes Goats Sheep Pigs106393 5847 38188 110 3254Monthly rainfall (m.m)Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov DecRainfall 7.4 9.1 21.5 96.3 186.3 694.1 1163.6 639.6 258.7 206.6 101.4 26.7Profile of Noolpuzha VillageGeographical Area (Hec) 24297Forest Area (Hec) 19287Cropped Area(Hec) 3330Irrigated Area (Hec) 200Total Number of House hold 4627Population 23151Male 11806Female 11345SC / ST 9861Hospitals 9High Schools 3Post Offices 8Banks 4Village Offices 1Telegraph Offices 1SHG General 296ST 111Sources: Panchayat ScheduleLIST OF TABLESTable 2: Distribution of Age across the SampleYear Age1-15 8516-30 6831-45 3445 years and above 29Total 226Table 3: Level of Education across the SampleLevel Of Education No Illiterate 126Literate 48Primary education 52Total 226Table 4: Distribution of the Sample according to Employment StatusStatus Employment (Nos)Unemployed 62Student 16Housewife 29Agriculture 60Non-farm enterprise (seasonal) 33Non-farm enterprise (regular) 4Service 8Any other 14Total 226Table 5: Income Details for Different OccupationsSource of IncomeAverage Income PerPerson Employedper Annum (Rs) Capita Incomeof Householdsper Annum (Rs)Agriculture 1,329 752Agricultural wage labour 10,800 2,700Non-agri enterprises (seasonal) 10,621 2,392Collecting MFP/grass (primary employment) 950 480Overall Income from non-agri sources - 519Per capita income from all sources 6843Table 6: Income Sources: Agriculture and OtherPer CapitaSources From AgricultureFrom Other Total IncomeIncome of HHs (No of HHs) (No of HHs) (No of HHs)0-2000 6 33 52000-4000 25 12 19More than 4000 19 5 26 Table 7: Asset DetailsAsset ListNumberApproximate Valueof the Asset ( Rs)Physical assets Clock 9 940Scooter 01 7000Cycle 01 2000Watch 10 2210Radio 05 2300Cot 24 5100Chairs 01 50Elec connections (number of bulb points) 15 3500Utensils (approx value) 17900 Farm implements 52 11500Pump 01 8000Jewellery (silver) (approx value) 213600 Jewellery (gold) (approx value) 1500 - Livestock Cows 3733700 Bullocks 5566000 Goat/sheep 81 35650Poultry 41 6720Land (area in acres) Own irrigated land 0.375 22000Own rain-fed land 20.5 81000Own non-cultivable land 11.7 232000Leased rain-fed land 1.875 66000Leased non-cultivable land 0.375 10000Dwelling Small 7 Medium 20 Large 01 Table 8: Borrowing Details from Different SourcesDetails of the MonetaryTransactions Break-up of theClient BaseSources LoanNo Of Accounts Ammount(Rs) Ave LoanSize (Rs) Group I19 Hhs Group Ii15 HhsCommercial bankspost office 05(7.8) 49,000(17.33) 9,8000203Moneylenders42( 65.62) 134,100(47.45) 3,1931824SHG04(6.25) 2,700(0.95) 6750004Relatives12(18.75) 91,800(32.48) 7,6500606Any other0 1(1.56) 5,000(1.79 ) 5,0000001Total 64 2,82,600 4,4153826 .* Group I = Per capita income less than Rs 4,000. Group II = Per capitaincome more than Rs 4,000Table 10: Significant Events and How They Were FinancedEvent Detail Borrowings No of Eventsin the Past Years(Rs)Ave AmtsavingsSpent(Rs)Used (Rs) Marriage of children1913,4321,89511,537Health problems of family members 31 1,9551,281 674Construction of house 10 7,570 800 5,770 Purchase of agricultural land 07 3,457 428 2 428 Funeral expense 04 200 - 1,200 Other 18 989 906 3,083 .References1 . Bapuji M., ‘Tribal Development-Strategies An Overview’, The Indian Journal ofAdministrative Science, Vol. III, Jan. -Dec. 1992..2 . Beteille, Andre, ‘The Definition of Tribe’, Seminar (14), 1960 in Romesh Thaper (Ed.)Tribe and Religion in India, McMillan Company of India, Lucknow, 1977.3 Danda, A.K., ‘Statutory Provisions Safeguarding Interests of Scheduled Tribes andScheduled Castes’, in L.P. Vidhyarthi (ed.) Tribal Development and Its Administration,Concept, Pub. Delhi, 1981.4 . Dhebar, U.N., Report of the ‘Scheduled Areas and Scheduled Tribes Commission’,1961, Publication Div. Govt. Of India, Delhi.5 . Elvin, V., ‘A New Deal for Tribal India, Government of India’, Manager Publication,Delhi, 1963.6 . Fernandez W. (ed.), ‘National Development and Tribal Deprivation’ Indian SocialInstitute, Delhi, 1992..7 Government of India, ‘Ninth Five Year Plan (1997-2002)’, Vol. II..8. Government of India, ‘Seventh Five Year Plan (1985-90)’, Delhi.9 Hasan, Amir, ‘Tribal Administration in India’, B.R. Publishing Corp. Delhi,1988..10 Hasan, Amir, ‘Land Reforms in Tribal Areas and Its Consequences’, In H.S. Saxena(ed.), Perspectives on Tribal Development, Bharath Book Centre, Lucknow, 1998.11 Hasan Amir, ‘Occupation Pattern on a Tarai Village’, The Eastern Anthropologist, Vol.XXII 2, July –August 1969..12. Hasan, Nadeem, ‘Tribal India’, Palika Prakashan, Delhi 1999..13 Karmaker, K.G., ‘Rrural Credit & Shelf Help groups’, Sage Publications, Delhi, 1999..14 Mahapatra, L.K., ‘Tribal Development in India: Myth and Reality’. Vikas PublishingHouse, Pvt. Ltd., 1994.15. Mahapatra, L.K., ‘Development for whom? Deprivating the Dispossed Tribals’, SocialAction, 41:3, 1991.16 Menon, P.S.K., ‘Tribal Development Policies, Plans and programmes’. Yojna, April2002.17 Mishra, S.N. and Singh B. (ed.) ‘Tribal Area Development Society for Study ofRegional Development’, New Delhi, 1983.18 Mohanty, B.B., ‘Land Distribution Among Scheduled Castes and Tribes’, Economic &Political Weekly, October 6, 2001.19 Nair, M.K. Sukumar, ‘Tribal Economy in Transition: A Study in Meghalaya’, Inter-India Pub. Delhi, 1987.20 . NCW, ‘Report on Tribal Women and Employment’, National Commission for Women,New Delhi, 1998.21 . Ramje N. & Bhatnagar, A., ‘Empowerment of Tribals and Sustainable Development ofNon-Wood Forest Produce’. Yojana, April 2000.22. Saxena, H.S., and Sen, Chandra, ‘Putting People Last: Tribal Displacement andRehabilitation’, Inter-India Publications, Delhi, 1999.23 Singh, A.K., ‘Tribal Development Administration in India’, Bharath Book Centre,Lucknow (In Press)24 Chavan, Pallavi (2003): ‘Moneylender’s Positive Image: Regression inDevelopment Thought and Policy’, Economic and Political Weekly,December 13, pp 5301-04.25 Fisher, Thomas and M S Sriram (2002): Beyond Micro-Credit: PuttingDevelopment Back into Micro-Finance, Sage-Vistaar, New Delhi.26 Mutesasira, L (1999): ‘Savings and Needs in East Africa: An Infinite Variety’in Potential Products and Product Development Services, MicroSaveAfrica, Nairobi.27 Rutherford, S et al (2002): ‘Innovative Approaches to Delivering MicrofinanceServices: The Case of VSSU’, West Bengal, MicroSave Africa,Nairobi.
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Nidheesh K BLecturer in CommercePondicherry UniversityPondicherryIndia