District Profile

TOPOGRAPHY

            Kasaragod District is marked off the areas outside the state by the Western Ghats, run parallel to the Arabian sea and constitute almost a continuas mountain wall on the eastern side.  In short the Ghats dominate the topography.  The coats line is fringed with low cliffs alternating with stretches  of sand.  A few miles to the interior topography changes and land level rises towards the Ghats and transform into low red laetrite hills intermixed with paddey fields, arecanut fields and coconut groves.  The district is bounded by the Western Ghats in the east, Arabian sea in west Canara district of Karnataka in the north and Kannur district in the south.
Based on physical features of the land, the district falls into three natural division – the low land bordering the sea, the middle land consisting of the undulating country and the forest high land on the extream coast.  There are 12 rivers in the district.  The longest amoung them is the chandragiri (105 km) starts from Pattimala in coorg and passes through Kasaragod touching Thalangara.

DEMOGRAPHICAL FEATURES
                Population of Kasaragod district is estimated as 1203342 as per 2001 census, of which the rural population is 825632 and the urban population is 377710.  The total male population is estimated as 587763 and the female population is 615579 and the female and the male ratio is 1040 to 1000. Density of population is 635. 36 /sq.km.

View Population figures  Table

OCCUPATIONAL DISTRIBUTION OF POPULATION & EMPLOYMENT STRUCTURE
            Out of the total population 417711 are workers; amoung them 19974 (4.8% are cultivatures, 41840 (10%) are agricultural labourers, 50096 (12%) are working in household industry and 305810 comes under the category of other workers.  The rate of female work participation is 21.5% in 2001 and male work participation is 35.3%.

INCOME AND ECONOMIC STATUS OF THE DISTRICT
            Majority of the population depend mainly on agriculture.  Rice and coconut are major crops in the coastal area, areacanut and cashewnut  are cultivated in the middle area.  Rubber, pepper are the important crops of the high land. Coastal area people are engaged in fishing.  Major part of population engage in  construction works, beedi works and other cottage industry. Still we can not turn off the face from considerable percentage of  emigrants work abroad especially in gulf countries to enrich the economy of the district .

•  LITERACY

           Considering literacy, Kasaragod district is a developing district.    Significant improvement  could  be noticed in literacy due to the adult education campaign conducted by Saksharatha Samithy and the school literacy programme Aksharapulary. As per 2001 census, total population of literates is 896367 amoung them 464844 are male and 431523 are female.  The district average of literacy is comparatively lower than the state average against the total population.

View Table – Literacy Status

 POPULATION (SC/ST), MUSLIM, HINDU AND CHRISTIAN)
          Major religious groups in the district are Hindus, (with different caste and creed) and muslims (Malayalam speaking people, urdu speaking people and a peculiar diatect of Malayalam speaking people called Biyaris).

Christians (Malayalam speaking and Konkani speaking)
          Malayalam speaking Christian population are mainly settled in the eastern hilly areas of the district and Konkani speaking Christians are settled in northern parts.  The main Christian settlements are in the eastern Panchayaths of Panathady, West Eleri, East Eleri and Balal. They engage mainly on plantation.  Mainly ….are inhabited in coastal belt and in major town.  The muslims, Christians and Hindus intermingled and each influencing and are influenced by the culture of the other Bhrahmins (with different sub division) Nairs.  Thiyyas, Shettys and Kammalas are the dominant castes in Hindu community.  Cherumas, Parayas, etc are the scheduled castes.  The scheduled tribes consist of Koragas, Kudiyas etc.  The Scheduled caste communities are largely settled in the following Panchayaths.

View Habitations of Schedules castes in the Districts

                

View Habitations of Schedules Tribes in the Districts

           The Schedules Tribe communities are not evenly settled in the district.  ST populaton is mainly settled in Manjeshwar, Kasaragod and Kanhangad Blocks.  The most primitude tribe settled are Koragas and are settled mainly in Kasaragod and Manjeshwar Blocks.

EDUCATIONAL SCENARIO

           Kasaragod is famous for its multi-lingual culture. When we examine the women’s literacy rate we can see it is steadily increasing from north to south. When we go through the educational status, we can see educational institutions are lesser in north-east region. The tribals like Koragas and Mavilas are highly influenced by their customs and traditions, in this region. They have to walk for ‘5’ kilometres to reach the nearby schools. There are 58 AIE centre functioning in these regions. The women literacy rate of Kasaragod is for beyond the Kerala literacy rate. Kasaragod’s womens literacy rate is nearby 79.8%. The girls enrolment is very less in public schools in this backward areas. Inaccessibility is the main problem they are facing.
          We have further decided to launch a programme for enabling upper primary literacy to all in the district irrespective of caste, creed, gender and social position who are under 50 years of age. A joint venture promoted by District Panchayath Kasaragod  with the help of SSA, DIET, Kudumbasree to promote education among women and deprived groups.

Literacy tendencies

          In literacy, Kasaragod District shows an average below the state level.  84.74% of the total population is literate.  Male literacy is 90.36% and the female literacy is 79.12% 81.74% of the scheduled community is literate where as the rate in the male among them is 87.36% and the female that of 76.12% considering the scheduled tribes, 79.74% are literate among them,  out of which the male literacy  is 85.36% and female literacy falls 74.12%.

The rural women literacy comes up to 75.12%. 

View Table showing the literacy rate of the district

Niravu – An Integrated Education Programme ( The Completion )
‘Niravu’ (The completion) was an innovative program initiated by Dist: Panchayath kasaragod with the whole hearted support of SSA with its trainers and officers, which conducted a separate data collection of children of school going age to ensure complete enrolment in future and to check dropouts. The survey was a great success with apt follow up works like “Kaliveedu” (a unique  informal child friendly program to attract them to school and academic activities and to inspire their inquisitive enthusiasm). Supplementary instructional materials prepared by the experts in SSA were distributed among teachers handling Second standard lessons in the districts as a part of their Capacity building in the modern paradigm shift. More over worksheets to serve this purpose also were distributed among the students of second standard in all schools. 
This year science educations have been given a special attention under ‘Niravu’. Galileo and Darvin have been given special emphasis and their work and achievement have been shown as a Jubilant torch through the scientific thought of little scientist in the district. A programme on science named ‘Sasthra Vismayam’ would be implemented at all school in the district. Variety of programmes connected with the amazement in the scientific field are also being thought of. Some of the programmes are as follows.

• Collection of books connected with Darvins evolution theory.
• CD materials connected with Darvins Theorem
• Exhibition at school level
• Museum
• Ente Pareekshana Saala