Pattern of Decision Making of Irula Tribal Farm Women in Nilgiris District

The study was undertaken to find out the pattern of decision making of the Irula  tribal farm women of Nilgiris district in farm and home. The study revealed that Irula tribal farm women took self decision in the case of irrigating fields (85.00) followed by using plant protection measures (83.33) in case of farm management and took self decision in cases like selection and preparation of food (100.00), decorating the house (70.00) They had least participation in decisions like construction of new house (63.33) followed by borrowing and giving loans (38.33)

Improving the Participation of Tribal Women in Developmental Programmes

Tribal women are gradually becoming integrated into village organizations. The present study was conducted among 120 tribal women respondents in four selected panchayats of Nilgiris district in Tamil Nadu. The respondents were selected using proportionate random sampling method. The data were collected from each respondent through a pre-tested interview schedule. The results were analysed with the help of statistical tools like mean, frequency and percentage. The results revealed that majority of the women respondents had more social taboos, superstitions and traditions as the major constraints in participating in various developmental programme

Participation of Self Help Group Tribal Women in Economic and Social Developmental Activities

A study was taken up among the tribal women in the Nilgiris district mainly to assess the extent of participation of tribal women SHG members in various developmental activities.Kotagiri and Gudalur blocks were selected based on the presence of NGOs specifically working for the tribes. Totally eight SHGs have been randomly selected for the study. This comprises four each from Todas and Kattunayakas. A sample of 10 members from each SHGs have been randomly selected. Thus the total sample size is 80. The results indicated that the overall analysis indicate that majority (55.00%) of the tribal women hadmedium level of participation followed by high and low levels

FINANCE COMMISSION AND THE SOUTHERN STATES : OVERVIEW OF ISSUES

This paper examines some of the relevant issues of resource sharing in the Indian federation, particularly in the context of the ongoing deliberations of the 13th Finance Commission. While the focus is on the southern states, in matters of fiscal transfers, a segmented view cannot be taken as the design of transfers has to take into account competing claims of different states on a limited pool of sharable resources. The main transferrelated issues discussed here relate to the vertical and horizontal dimensions of fiscal transfers.Finance Commission, Horizontal Issues, Vertical Issues, Regional Government Analysis.

Adoption and Impact of Eco-Friendly Conservation Practices in The Nilgiris District of Western Ghats

The study was under taken to find out the relationship between the profile of the farmers of The Nilgiris district and the impact in their adoption of Eco Friendly Conservation Practices. The study revealed that educational status, risk orientation, training undergone, progressiveness, self reliance, innovativeness and contact with extension agency were found  to have positively contributed to the adoption of Eco Friendly Conservation Practices. With respect to impact, majority of the farmers opined that the cost of cultivation decreased, followed by increased farmers confidence level, improved fertility status of the soil and improved biodiversity in the farm fields

Son preference and contraceptive practice among tribal groups in rural South India

This paper examines the son preference and contraceptive practice among tribal groups in rural south India. Parents’ preferences for the sex of their children have constituted an important theme in population and social research over the past three decades. Data were collected from a household survey of 398 currently married women of reproductive age group (15-49) from four taluks in the Nilgiris District of rural Tamilnadu are selected with respect to the different tribal communities. Cross tabulation and logistic regression analysis was carried out for finding out relationships between the socio-economic, demographic variables on contraceptive practice. The use of contraceptive practice by tribal groups in rural areas is strongly linked to individual and household socio-economic and demographic variables. Findings shows that the expectation that a son will provide financial support in old age is strongly associated with the response that a son is important. Son preference is slightly more among the tribal women, particularly among the users of spacing method who are more among those preferring the sons. Some of the socio-economic variables like education of husband and occupation have shown negative influence on higher fertility and positive influence on contraceptive use among the tribal women. It is proposed that there is need for more comprehensive on tribes in different areas in state and in the Indian nation to explicitly bring out the son preference attitudes of tribal people, which have an impact on their fertility and family planning practices.International Bibliography of Social Science

‘One hen’ or ‘a basket of bangles’: women development and micro-credit in Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu in India has a glorious tradition of recognizing the importance of empowering women over several centuries. The State fares reasonably well (above the all-India level) in terms of indicators such as female literacy, girls enrollment, female life expectancy, and women’s access to basic amenities. The maternal mortality rates and total fertility rates are also lower than the national average. In terms of political participation, women are faring reasonably well. While the absolute condition of women in Tamil Nadu is better than that in most States, the position of women vis-à-vis men with respect to literacy, education, work force participation, wages, asset-ownership and political participation has not improved. It is recognized that the main obstacles to empowerment has been the low level of educational attainments as well as poverty among women. Taking into account this fact, the Government of Tamil Nadu has framed various policies, designed specific interventions and implemented many programmes to eradicate poverty and to provide education to the vulnerable sections of the society. These different Government-sponsored schemes are implemented through women’s self-help groups. The present paper discusses the experience of Tamil Nadu in women development and micro-credit.Women empowerment, micro-credit, Tamil Nadu, Mahalir Thittam

Evaluation of Morphological Diversity in South Indian Tea Clones Using Statistical Methods

Morphological diversity of three Camellia (Theaceae) taxa conserved in an ex situ gene bank was studied and the importance of different descriptors in categorising accessions into distinct groups was also determined. Twelve accessions were characterised using 15 morphological descriptors of IPGRI guidelines. The results of principal component analysis (PCA) on morphological characters showed that the first two principal components accounted for 44.77 % of the total variance. In the evaluated quantitative characters, all three taxa had a coefficient of variation (CV) greater than 24.85%, and within the taxon the CV was greater than 9.59%. The qualitative characters showed a wide range of variations and yielded significant differences (p<0.05). Phenotypic data had high contributing component loadings from characters such as leaf area, weight of harvested shoots, stem colour, leaf pubescence and young shoot colour. Cluster analysis delineated the accessions into three groups. The implications of our results hold promise for assessing genetic diversity in germplasm collections, which is a prerequisite for their utilisation, effective management and crop improvement

Conservation of an endemic medicinal plant, Anaphalis eliptica DC. by employing plant tissue culture technique

The plant species, Anaphalis elliptica DC. (Asteraceae) is a medicinal herb endemic to high hills of Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, the Western Ghats. The in vitro propagation study of this species by using leaf, node and shoot tip explants, revealed the following results: Among the three explants used, leaf and node responded well for callus and shoot initiations respectively. The leaf explant produced callus effectively (91%) in the MS medium supplemented with BAP and NAA at 2.5 and 0.3 mg/l respectively, whereas the nodal explant produced higher amount of shoots (92%) in the basal medium containing the growth regulator, BAP alone at 3.0 mg/l. The leaf derived callus produced higher (80%) shoot initials and shoot multiplication in the MS medium augmented with BAP and NAA at 3.0 and 0.5mg/l respectively. Similarly, the in vitro nodal derived shoots produced higher shoot multiplication (87%) in MS medium supplemented with BAP at 3.0mg/l. The regenerated shoots of both the explants were successfully rooted on MS medium supplemented with IBA and NAA at 1.0mg/l each. After sequential hardening the leaf callus derived plantlets registered higher survivability rate (80%) in the hardening medium containing decomposed coir waste, perlite and compost in the ratio of 1:1:1 by volume. Similarly, the survivability rate of nodal derived plantlets was higher (84%) in the hardening medium composed by vermicompost and soil in the ratio of 1:1 by volume