CTRD: Model Village

Model Tribal Village

Poothemcandi tribal village is situated near Mangode in the Pandalur Taluk of the Gudalur Block. It takes roughly 20 minutes by motorcycle to reach Poothemcandi from the CTRD head office. Poothemcandi village is one of the principle target villages of CTRD Trust and has been under our care for the past 11 years.

The Paniya inhabitants of the village live below the poverty line. The men and women often work as daily labourers in the nearby tea and paddy fields. A few of the younger children go to school but many still have no access. Like all other tribes in the area they are also downtrodden and underprivileged. When CTRD started work in the village they didn’t have proper houses. The houses were built using mud and bamboo and the roofs were made from thatched grass. These houses were not strong enough to resist the weather conditions particularly during the monsoon season.

This village was adopted by CTRD Trust in 1996 under the Integrated Tribal Development Project. Since then many development activities have been done in this village in the fields of health, community development, agriculture, income generation and education.

The proposed infrastructure project was for four houses and four toilets. The infrastructure model was adopted from the model village of Eallamanna. The houses were designed based on the suggestions and requirements of the villagers. After its construction the model village was inaugurated on the 3rd of October 2007. To know the impact of the model village in Poothemcandi the staff team of CTRD Trust made an impact study on the 19th of December 2007.

Impact Study

CTRD interviewed Mr Kumar who is one the inhabitants of Poothemcandi. He is 34 and works as a daily labourer on the local estates. We asked him about the types of houses they previously lived in. He explained that: “Before we were living in small huts built out of mud walls and grass roofs”.

When asked about the houses built by CTRD he stated that: “We feel very happy with this house. We feel like rich people. They are comfortable; however, the only problem is that we don’t have electricity”.

When asked about the new toilets Mr Kumar told us that: “It’s a new thing for us. In the beginning it was a bit hard to use but now we are getting used to it and in the rainy season we find it really useful. The houses are strong enough to resist the weather and they are big and spacious”.

We continued by asking him what the advantages and comforts of the house were. He stated that: “We feel safe here. It can accommodate our guests. When we go to work our children’s are safe here. It also resists all kind of weather. We are very happy now because some days we would have only two meals to eat but still we have a good roof to reside. All our problems and worries related to house are over”.

During our visit we also interviewed Mrs. Paru. We asked her about the smokeless choola’s that CTRD installed in all the new houses. We began by asking if they have been using them and whether they are comfortable to use. She said: “Yes we use them. They are comfortable because it is built high so we don’t have to bend and there are three stoves in it so it is easy to cook fast”. We asked Mrs. Paru what the difference is between the smokeless stoves and the old stoves she was using previously. She explained that: “The one we were using before emits lot of smoke which would make you to cry and you had to blow it vigorously to make it burn. It is safe since it is built high so our children can’t reach it. The old one emits more smoke which in turn makes me cough so all our problems are solved with this smokeless choola”.

CTRD Trust 2008

Centre for Tribal and Rural Development

Model Tribal Village