SEEDS works in four blocks of Virudhunagar and Ramnad district in the State of Tamil Nadu in India. Name of the four blocks are Aruppukottai Block, Thiruchuli Block, Narikudi Block and Kariyapatti and Kamuthi Block in Ramnad District.
Social context: The constitution of social division of castes is as follows-Dalit castes 30%, Most Backward castes 30%, Backward Castes 30% and Forward Castes 10%. This area has a high illiteracy rate. Drinking water scarcity, less number of educational institutions, unmatched number of health care institutions, bad road connectivity etc are major social infrastructure problems. School drop outs, child labour, contract employment of adolescent girls in long distant factories, are found in alarming stage. Still family planning awareness is not reached to this area. One could found more than two children in a household. HIV/AIDS is one of the growing problems of the area due to the regular migration seeking employment in outside the area. Gender inequality is still a bigger problems here. Better role in familial and community decision making, enrolment in higher education, equal wage for equal work, receiving need based health and medical care, involvement in traditional occupations are still a distant dreams of women and girls in the target area.
Economical context Economically this area falls into the category of most backward area. The dominant economic activity is agriculture. Only a small number of textile industries are found in Aruppukottai town. 70% of the land is dry land. Only 30% of the land is irrigated land. So, rain-fed agriculture plays a dominant role. Most of the dry lands are covered with thorny trees. 60% of the population is landless, 35% population is small and marginal farmers and only a 5% is rich farmers. Rain-fed farming, charcoal making (by cutting down the thorny trees) are the major employment. Textile industries give daily wage labour employment to a small portion of the population. Apart from these National Rural Employment Guaranty Scheme is providing employment to poor families 100 days work (employment to one per person per family). During non agricultural seasons, migration is the regular destiny to the working class people and is the biggest problem of the area. The landless and marginal farming families mostly migrate to industrialised cities such as Thirupur, Coimbatire and ever green Kerala state for seeking employment. They are usually employed in building construction, road construction etc as daily wage labour.
Political context Local self government bodies were expected to play a greater role in rural development, women political empowerment, strengthening grassroots democracy etc. But rampant corruption in politics, party politics, high level dominance of men over women prevented that development. Local bodies played a certain role in rural infrastructure building. Cash for vote, corruption from top to bottom in the executive structure of the state, a strong and deep divide in communities due to political polarisation, not allowing women elected representatives to deliver their duties and authorities by male members in their families, are the biggest problems that prevents real development. Still the much expected “Grama Sabha” supposed to be the citizens’ parliament is not functioning and taking into democratic shape. So, there is a need for several changes in this sector for creating real environment for development.