Our Project

Kolar is a relatively poor district in Karnataka. There are 3600 water tanks in the district. However, because of the presence of silt in those tanks they dry up very fast making it impossible for the maximum usage of water for cultivation. The livelihood of people through agriculture is severely affected. Only 26% of the total land is under cultivation. Sericulture and animal husbandry are popular in Kolar and is a main source of income, for many people.

Chintamani taluk is one of the 11 taluks of Kolar District. Chintamani is a manjor commercial centre for agricultural produce, sericulture and milk diary. A college of Sericulture is also situated in Chitamani. The total population of this taluk is around 6 lakhs of which 42% belong to the Schedule caste and schedule tribe communities. The rest of the population belongs to upper caste communities. Most people belonging SC and ST are engaged in agricultural labour and find work only for about 150 to 200 days in a year. Their wages are poor and range from Rs. 30 to Rs. 50 per day. During period of unemployment the people tend to migrate to towns for their livelihood and this also encourages child labour. Child labour as a result it has increased to 28%. Instances of school drop-outs increase. The low income of these communities forces them to avail of loans from richer communities and moneylenders and get into a debt-trap from which they find it difficult to escape.

The project area is one of the target 16 villages of Chintamani taluk.  The village’s major agriculture produces ragi, cerals, sericulture, partly groundnut and milk dairy.  The total population of the target villages 4788 out of that 1643 belongs to schedule caste, 1192 belongs to tribal, 520 schedule tribe, 950 backward community and 483 are belongs to upper caste.  Most of these communities are engaged in agricultural labour and find work only for about 150 to 200 days in a year.  Their wages are poor and range from Rs. 80 to Rs. 100 per day.  During period of unemployment the people tend to migrate to towns for their lively hood and this also encourages child labour.  In the target villages 50% of children are school drop outs increase.  The govt. is the government school records will shows nil drop outs.  The low income of these communities forces them to avail of loans from richer communities and money lenders and get in to debt trap from which they find it difficult to escape.