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and India, is given in Table 4.1. Of the total population in the village. 31.7% were below
15 years of age and 10.0% 60 years and over. the wrrespondlng figures for Tamil
Nadu being 31.4% and 8.7% respectively (Anonymous,l995). The overall age and
gender distribution of the population in the village was simllar to Tamil Nadu and Ind~a,
except that the sex ratlo was higher than the national figure and less than the state
f~gure. In Figure. 4.1 the age and gender specific distribution of the population of Kedar
is shown Except for one muslim family in the entire village, all were Hlndus. Out of 658
households, 185 (28 1%) belonged to the scheduled caste, who formed 25 7% of the
total population.
jb) Occupation
Out of the total village population, 35 0% were landless agricultural laborers, 25.0%
cultivators.l8.0% businessmen,l7.0% weavers and the rest petty shop owners,
government servants etc. (Figure. 4.2).
lc) Literacy status
The overall literacy rate of the v~llage population over 6 years of age was 63.0%. It was
significantly higher in males (74.6%) than in females (51.7%; p c 0.05). The male and
female literacy rates in the village were higher than those in Tamil Nadu rural areas and
in Ind~a. The literacy rates for women and men in rural Tamil Nadu are 47.0% and
71.0% respectively, and the corresponding figures for India are 37.7% and 65.5%
respectively (Anonymous,l994a; Park,l997).
id) Socioeconomic status
Most Of the villagers belonged to a low socioeconomic status. Out of a total of 658
households, 466 (70.8%) had an annual income of less than Rs.10,000 (Table 4.2) and