MONOGRAPH No.3 CENSUS OF INDIA VOLUME 'I MONO GRAPH SERIES PART VI SOCIO-ECONOMIC SURVEY REPORT I ntJestigation cf first draft ON P. N. RAMUNNI NAIR CHETLAT ISLAND Assi ..~tance in editing K. P. ITTAMAN, M. Sc. Union Territory of Laecadive, Minieoy and Amindlvl Research d~n & editing B. K. Roy BURMAN, M. Sc., D. Phil. FQTe1IX»'d OFFICE OF THE REGISTRAR GENERAL, INDIA AeoKMlTltA MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAffiS \ Reptrar General, India NEW DEl4lU , ..... ' ..... t .. , • ~ • , • • •• .. ' """ NOTIONAL "'.P OF ", '................ ,. CHETlAT ISLAND,l, , . \ ' . \. ' ·· ·.., , . " " I· ~. · .. " '. , '. 1 S, ';:, . ., , '0' ~ -""~ .c ........... -.s· ., ,_.' "~aw _ .... ,\ " . +'" rot ., 'I. .., •• C:Hl~T. _~ ~~~-N-~~ ., ,""'"', r',,) ., . .. ,;'1#.-" "'- .. ~ .. f!'_~ 1:0: t(' ' • .UL-' "'" ..~. '. , · , • .._"..., KO%(l1.. It , "", "- . "~ (' A Q ~ B I ~ N '. SEA . ~~1~1 • ' '1 • """'!U.n, <, 0 " ..... "", \ - ". '. CO~~~~\ • ( .' .' , (' '," .' \ l ,. .( .. , " ~ Photography ... • i i • ..; .. • .; Antar ~ingh P. N. Ramunni Nair Cover Page, Map arid Dra~ngs .. S. Krishna Pillai S~nography •• .. S. N. Kapur Typing .. B. L. Kapoor B. N. Kapur S.D. Solli Tabulation •• .. .. C. G. Jadhav S. C. Saxena R. P. Khurana Sudesh Chandar K.K. Chawla S. P. Jain Manohar Singh RipuDaman FOREWORD in my general Foreword to the Village Survey series of the 1961 Census Pubiications; t have briefly explained how the idea of the survey unfolded itself and developed between 1959 and 1961. Towards the end of 1961 several distinguished scholars were invited to write special monographs for the Village Survey series. At the same time, the Social Studies Section of the Registrar General's Office, headed by Dr. B.K. Roy :Burman, undertook experiments in various types of social study. Dr. Roy Burman stimulated his colleagues and assistants to go into great depth over specific problems of social change. His object was, apart from striking new lines in methodology and designs of schedules, new' m.ethods of tabulation and cross-tabulation, new lines of correlating apparently unrelated" fields of social phenomenon to t~ain his colleagues and assistants rigorously in the science \ of social investigation. He took a wide range of probl'3ms and even a wider geographical distribu- tion of them throughout India. " This Socio-Economic Survey of Chetlat Island, in the Union TerritoryofLaccadive, Minicoy and Amindivi Islands, in the Arabian Sea, is a testimony to Dr. B.K. Roy Burman's abilities in directing research and to the staunchness and probity with which the investiga­ tion was conducted, analysed and reported upon by Shri Ramunni Nair. Shri K.P. Itta· man, who has assisted Dr. Roy Burman, in taking post-editing follow up actions, has also done a good job. This study has added to our knowledge of the people of the Union Terri ~ tory of Laocadive, Minicoy and Amindivi Islands and I wish to reoord my acknowledgements to my colleagues. NEW DELHI, ASOK MtrRA March, 196'1 Regi8trar General, India PREFACE 4s adjunct of 1961 Ce~sus, Socio-EcQp.omic Survey of ahout f>QO villages h~s been underta,ken in different parts of India. by the Ce:q.~us Organi~tion. In most of the 8t~tes, this survey has been conducted by the Superintendents of Census Operations, with the technical advice, provided by the Handicrafts and Social Studies Unit of the Office of the Registrar General, India. In view of the fact that special conditions prevail in the Union Territory of Laccadive, Mmicoy and Amindivi Islands, Registrar General, India, decided that the survey of the islands in this area would be undertaken under my direct \ supervvuon. , Early in 1962, I paid a visit to three islands, namely, Amini, Kavaratti and Minicoy. Mr. Justice E. Govinda Menon of Kerala High Court andSJ'iM. Ramunny, Administrator, '~cc:;t,dive, )IinicQY and ~i~<pvi als.o Yisit~d these isll.nds at the ~ame ti~e. With the facilities graciously made ay~jlable to roe by ~ri M. Rall1unny" it W~ possible for me to con­ tact a large number of islanders belonging to different walks of life within the short time of my visit. It Was also possible for me to attend a number of public meetings~ visit a number of institutions and enjoy the warm hospitability, in a number of houses in these is­ lands. I had also the advantage of being accompanied by Sri Ramunni Nair, in that trip. lIe p.a,q. b,e~J?- wo~kip.g as Soci~l Edllootion Org~niser oft4e Union T~rritory since 1959 and' as C~nslls Jnvestigator since 19@. His thQrough knowledge oftha life of the islap.ders and wide contact proved very useful during my short visit. The preaeI).ce of Sri A:plar ~Hngh, Pho~ographer, Office oftha Registrar General, India, was alsQ useful for ~tablishing qui<r~ fapP.9rt with t~e people. In the light of the experience gained during this trip, I formulated the problems of so. cial research in the islands and prepared a series of schedules for collection or the data. These W'~re slightly modifieq subs,equ~:p.tly for the cOQ.veniellce of recording of qat~. The following schedules were canvassed at Chetlat. Island 1 Household 5~ Special fazpily 20 Birth Ii) Sex a!ld marrage .. 10 Polygyny .. • • •• 4 Divorce .. 10 Death 10 Odum.'t· 17 Sri Ramunni Nair conducted the field survey at Chetlat from 14th M~y, 1963 to lOth October, 1963. After the report was drafted he collected additional particulars from tlle i1;lAahitarnts o.f Chetlat Jiving in Kd~WkQde fox v~rificatiQn Qf cextaiJl f~ct&, ~UIing April- (iii) . (iv) May, 1964. These periods are exclusive of the time spent by him at Kozhikode, for collec~ tion of statistical and other data from the Office of the Administrator, Lacoadive, Minicoy and Amindivi Islands. The data were tabulated in the Office of the Registrar General, India, according to the t~bulation design drawn up by me. Sri Ramunni Nair prepared the first draft of the report. In chbcking the data collected by Sri Ramunni Nair, I receIved considerable assistance from Sri K.P. Ittaman, Senior Technical Assistant, in the Office of the Registrar General, India, who has already surveyed another island of the same area, namely, Amini. He has also helped me in the post-drafting editorial actions, which are not inconsiderable. Sri P.K. Harid, Census Investigator, Kerala, who is currently engaged in conducting Socio.,;Economic Survey in Laccadive, Minicoy and Amindivigroup of islands, went through the draft and ga va useful suggestions. The credit for the data furnished in this report belongs to Sri Ramunni N~ir. The res­ ponsibility ~or the interpretation of the data and the final draft is mine . The photos included in the monograph were taken,.by Sri Ramunni Nair. Th~sketches and other illustrations were drawn by Sri S. K:tishna Plllai, Junior Draftsman-cum-Artist, . in the Office of the Registrar General) India. I should take this opportunity to express my gratitude to the Laccadive, Minicoy and Amindivi Administration for their generous help _in this project. When Sri Ramunni Nair undertook the survey of Chetlat Island, his services had been transferred from the establish w ment of the Laccadive, Minicoy and Amindivi Administration to the establishment of the Superintendent of Census Operations, Kerala. But Laccadive, Minicoy and Amindivi Adminisration very graciously allotted accommodation to Sri Ramunni Nair in their office building and for all practical purposes treated him as a member of their own establishment. My special thanks are due, to Sri M.K. Devassy, Superintendent of Census Operations, Kerala. He was kind enough to place Sri Ramunni Nair, completely at my disposal and when­ ever any administrative help was required from his office, he extended the sam.e ungrudgingly. I am. grateful to my colleague Sri M.G. Kini, who saw to it t.hat the various instructions issued by me from time to time, in connection with the survey were implemented. It is because of innumerable assistanoe of general nature that I receive from him, that it is possi­ ble for me to keep track of a few dozen research proj ects, which have been undertaken by the Handicrafts and Social Studies Unit, Office of the Registrar General, India. He has proved himself to be an invaluable aid for research ad~inistration. Sri S.N. Kapur, Stenotypist, attached to me, who took dictation of the final draft deserves special mention. He is a careful Stenotypist; in addition when a dictation is given on the basis of figures furnished in a table, he takes pains to' check the figures in the original table and find out incongruities, if any. The final draft for press was partly typed by Sri S.N. Kapur and partly by Sri B.N. Kapm:. (v) I am grateful to Sri C.G. Jadhav and Sri Sudesh Chander, for eo-ordinating the tabulation work. The complicated subsidiary tables were prepared by both of them, as well as by Sri S.C. Saxena. The tabulation of various sohedules was done by different teams of Computors and Assistant Compilers belonging to the Handicrafts and Social Studies Unit and Central Tabulation Unit of the Office of the Registrar Genera,I, India. I have mentioned them sepa .. rately. I am grateful to all of them. I am particularly grateful to Sri K.D. Ballal, Central Tabulation Officer, for kindly arranging the preparation of most of the tables in his Unit and to Sri S.C. Srivastava, Assistant Cent~al Tabulation Officer, for getting the work done. To Sri K.D. Ballal, I am further grateful for the trouble he has taken for getting the report printed. Sri Bani Singh, another oolleague, who has ably assisted Sri Ballal, to push through the printing 'progranune also deserves sp~cial mention.