THAZHANGUDA SOCIO-ECONOMICAL CONTEXT
Demography
There are about 1850 people living in the village.
The population average age is 25.7 years old. Around 110 families have lost their houses
with the Tsunami, and 33 people died.
THAZHANGUDA'S MAJOR ISSUES
We conducted an in depth field survey when we arrived in
Thazhanguda, visiting all families in order to discuss about the main issues concerning
them and the village.
The outcome of this enquiry underlined three major issues
1- A fragile local economy
resting on fishing only
The village is completely dependant toward the fishing activity.
During the four months that followed the Tsunami for instance, the village was totally
blocked and dependant on external relief. Again during the very heavy 2005 monsoon, the
village’s economy and activity was paralysed.
The enclosed diagrams give an insight of the repartition of the activities in the village,
most of them being focussed on fishing for both men and women.
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Another disaster such as a Tsunami or a very strong monsoon could paralyse the village
in the same way and leave its inhabitants in the same precarious state. Moreover, the
competition of big fishing companies is getting stronger everyday and will probably become
unbearable in the long term if the fishing market becomes more liberalised.
2- An in depth social segregation
between the village communities
This segregation particularly affects the community of farmers (Vannirs) who lives in
margin of Thazhanguda. Being a different cast and less important in number, the Vannir
suffer from constant segregation from the fishermen. For instance, most of the relief has
been centralised by the fishermen community and redistributed to its member only, leaving
the Vannirs in critical situation after the disaster occurred. Vannir children don't go to
the village school, and most of the Vannirs just never enter the village center. There is
total absence of communication and solidarity among the members of these different
communities.
3- A very low literacy
level
57% of Thazhanguda's males (above 20 years old) and 37% of the village females only can
read and / or write. The average level of adult female studies is the second
standard (they stopped studying at 7 - 8 years old).
There are around 165 children from 1 to 4 years old and around 450 children from 5 to 15.
95 % of the children between 5 and 15 go to school but around one third of the student
have deep school difficulty and barely one third of the children continue their studies in
High Secondary School after 15. Many of them fail as they go to the school of the nearby
town which level is much higher than the one of Thazhanguda's village school.
ENHANCE EDUCATION, A WAY TO TACKLE
BOTH THREE ISSUES
> Raise the literacy and education level of Thazhanguda's children so
that they can keep on their studies
> Through education, the village population can have access to different types
of jobs and generate economic activity in Thazhanguda, thus helping the village’s
development. This may avoid the village’s long term impoverishment.
> Education will hopefully broaden the villages’ perspective and diminish
the effects of segregation. It can help building bridges between the different
communities, by putting their local issues and context in perspective.
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