WHERE WE WORK
Gingee
Gingee is a town of about 25,000 people 150 km south west of Chennai (Madras) in the state of Tamil Nadu in South India. Our offices are in the town but we do most of our work in the surrounding villages, where we work with marginalised and exploited groups like Gypsies, tribal people, Dalits (untouchables) and women.
Economy
This is a particularly backward area with few opportunities for employment. 90% of people in the villages depend on agriculture, but very few own any land. They have to work as day labourers for the land owners and earn very low wages Typically a man will earn 60 rupees a day – not much more than 1 US dollar, women half that. They have only seasonal work, so two thirds of the population will be earning less than 3,500 rupees per year.
Education
There is a high rate of illiteracy among the groups we work with (e.g. among Dalits (untouchables) 55% for men and 72% for women, and among adult Gypsies almost 100%). Parents cannot afford to send their children to school and often keep them at home to work or look after young ones. Of the children who do go to school, only 8 out of 100 complete eight years of school. There is no training at all for those who drop out of school,
Lower Castes
In this area roughly a third of the people are low-caste (Dalits). They suffer discrimination in many areas. For example:
- They are not allowed to use public services like water tanks, schools and clinics
- They have to do menial work for little or no payment, such as clearing dead animals and burning the dead.
- Females are often abused by higher castes; girls are teased and women sexually abused.
- In tea shops they have to drink from separate glasses and are not allowed to sit on benches.
