Kanakanala Watershed Project (KWP) area, spanning 13,402 hectares of land, comprises 3250 families in 24 villages. While 95% of the families depend on agriculture, 5% are landless. Harvesting occurs twice a year, during which around 75% of the villagers spend 15 to 20 days in the fields. Every three years, the area faces a drought, and the people sell their cattle as well as their gold and silver in order to manage expenses.
Their main crops are jowar, bajra and cereals. Though this region is famous for cereals, the yield has been reducing in recent times.
The good news is that there has been a rise in the percentage of the female population. Earlier, education in village schools was restricted to the 4th standard, but now the major villages have high schools. This is not reason enough to celebrate, however, because although the total percentage of girls attending school has risen dramatically from zero to 25%, the literacy rate still remains a low 20%.
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The main occupation being agriculture, most families depend on their cattle for their living. There are also potters, smiths and weavers, who earn their living by continuing their family profession. People of various castes and tribes, including Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Backward Castes and other backward classes reside here.
The villagers deeply believe in superstition, and each village celebrates festivals and has a practice of performing periodical celebrations (Jatra). Periodical Jatras of deities like Veerabadreshwara, Panduranga, Ramalingeshwara, Durgammma, Anjaneya, Venkateshwara, Shamed Ali, Sharana Basaveshwara, and Eshwara are performed.
The women of the area work harder than their male counterparts, going to work in the fields after completing their daily household chores. Previously this region faced a scarcity of water, forcing the villagers to walk five kms to collect water for their daily consumption. With the commencement of developmental work in the area, water for both people and cattle became available. Earlier, due to scarcity of water, cattle were sent outside the area for a period of four months. This practice has now been stopped, resulting in an increase in the availability of manure, and greater fertility of the soil.
By Chennaya Swamy and Gouramma
