A Woman's Place!

"In most parts of Tamil Nadu, society is patrilineal where inheritance goes from father to son. Women rarely head households and their historical role has been that of a domestic and reproductive member of a family. The secondary position of women in Tamil Nadu is reflected starkly in the extent to which they have no control over their labour and wages. The workforce of the State finds that more women engaged in agriculture than in manufacturing or services.

The value placed on women's work is less than that of men, and even in the service sector domestic work, nursing, teaching or secretarial jobs are set aside for them while the high-end tasks are performed by men. The same is true in the manufacturing sector where women work as beedi workers, as manual labour for cotton textiles, fish, food processing and the match industry. They do intermittent jobs at extremely low wages, for long hours under unsatisfactory working conditions. They face sexual harassment and intimidation. In rural areas, women labourers are harassed more than men and few have leadership positions in unions."
[Human Development Resource Report, 2003]

Land Redistribution

The third phase of free land distribution scheme of two-acre plots to poor and agricultural labourers will be launched at Chennavaram village, Tiruvannamalai District on March 17, 2007.

The State scheme, one of the major poll promises for the DMK government in its first two phases released 50,077 acres amongst 50,189 families. An official release said that about 2,500,000 acres would be distributed across the State in the third phase.

There are 640 acres in one square mile. Thus If the above official figures are correct, the Statewide total of all phases of the redistribution of land will come to approximately 4,000 square miles. Which is a sizeable chunk of the total area of the 50,215 sq miles total area of Tamil Nadu.

The Department of Agriculture will develop the land before handing it to the farmers. Works including land reclamation, contour bunding, clearing of bushes and wild growth, agronomical practices, removal of stones, sinking of deep borewells, soil testing and establishment of pump sets are to be done by the Department of Agriculture free of cost for the benefit of small and marginal farmers.

Water Problem

Tamil Nadu is likely to face a severe water crisis in the next half century. According to experts, what will contribute to the crisis is the fast-depleting groundwater table, and the increasing pollution of water sources. The crisis in the making in Tamil Nadu would be as much about the quality of water available as its shrinking availability. Experts want Tamil Nadu to reduce its dependence on water from neighbouring States and formulate alternative plans.

As well as the concern that many rivers are already badly polluted in the State, another area of concern is the general over-exploitation of groundwater. According to experts, too many farmers are cultivating water-intensive crops and are indiscriminately exploiting groundwater for irrigation, which has led to a steep fall in the water table. In this respect agriculture accounts for 85-90% of the total use of water in the State. Even by the juidicious planting of less water intensive crops and gaining a 10% reduction in the agricultural sector, would considerably ease the impending water shortage situation.

[To read an excellent a full report on the Tamil Nadu water problem please check this link]