The people belonging to Kudubi community living in remote villages across Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts are socially, economically and educationally the most backward community in Karnataka and they should be included in the Scheduled Tribes list, says a survey report by a sociologist.
Noted sociologist Y Ravindranath Rao who conducted the study has made a detailed analysis of the socio-economic indicators of the rural community.
The report was prepared on the basis of details collected from 5,372 Kudubi families in 66 villages across the two southern districts.
The report, released to the media here, suggests that the Kudubi community should be included in the ST category in order to alleviate its economic backwardness and to bring them into the mainstream.
Rao says in his report that 96 per cent of the community surveyed were living in rural areas or in forests, without access to educational and medical facilities and exposure to modernisation.
Though literacy had improved among the youth through governmental schemes, higher education was still a dream for the majority in the community. The Kudubi youth were largely unemployed with only a few graduates coming up from among them.
Around three-fourth of the community were daily wage workers and the average income of a Kudubi was around Rs 30, which was Rs 2 less than the poverty line fixed by the Rangarajan panel, says the report.
On living standards of Kudubis, Rao says in his report that the number of houses without electricity (12.2 percent) and lavatories (28.7 percent) was much below the district and national averages.
