Social, Environmental & Economic
Sustainability
Our analysis of the rank of the district
Backwardness : 109
Sex Ratio Rank : 305
(Rank one is least sex ratio - Cenus 2001)
HIV Category District : A
(HIV Sentinel Surveillance 2004 - 2006)
Disability : 206 (Census 2001)
Literacy Ratio : NA
Minority : Does not figure in MCD
Challenges of the district : Our research with local communities
In Yavatmal, the status of farmers is deplorable.
It’s a tribal area and people are not very progressive.
Roads are in bad shape.
Farmers in Yavatmal are very poor. They have taken loans from
money lenders at high interest rates to buy seeds, pesticides,
fertilizers etc. When they are unable to pay off their loans they
become landless and indebted. This forces many farmers to contemplate
suicide.
Sharad Akolkar, Dainik Lokdoot,
Yavatmal
Ankush Wakade, Sahasi, Yavatmal
Gyaneswar Munde, Lokmat, Yavatmal
Rajkumar Vitkar, Lokshahi Varta,
Yavatmal
Brief About Yavatmal District
PEOPLE, LANGUAGES AND RELIGIONS
Mali: -
The Malis or Marals number are 4 per cent of the population
and are chiefly occupied in growing vegetables and garden crops.
They are less sturdy and dogged than the Kunbis and more easily
buillied. They have several local subdivisions as the Kosaria,
Phulmali, Bhange, Baone, Jire, Mire, Harde, Ghase, and Pahad.
Banjara:-
The Bankaras number are 6 per cent of the population, residing
principally in the forest tracts to the south of the District.
They are also known as Labhana from their former occupation
of carrying salt. The Mathuria subcaste are the highest and
wear the sacred thread. These generally live a reputable life,
but the other Banjaras have a somewhat bad reputation for theft
and cattle-lifting. The women wear 2 little sticks fixed upright
in their hair, over which their cloth is drawn. Their front
hair hangs down beside their face, and behind it is woven in
to a plaitwith silk thread & hangs down the back. They have
large ornaments of silver tied over the head and hanging down
beside the ears; and to these are attached little bells. Their
arms are covered with bangles of ivory, and they have tinkling
anklets on the feet. The women wear skirts and short cloths
drawn over the shoulders , and along their skirts double lines
of coweries are embroidered.
Andh The andhs are stated in
the census Reports to be an aboriginal tribe and probably are
so. Nothing can be ascertained as to their origin, and they
are not found in any Province. They have now adopted nearly
all the practices of Kunbis and are hardly distinguishable from
them in dress or personal appearance. In social status they
are generally considered to be only a little lower than Kunbis,
and cultivate in the ordinary Manner like them. They employ
Brahmans as their priests, and profess to be Vaishnavas by religion
, wearing sect-marks on their foreheads. But in two matters
they appear to show their Dravidian origin. One is that they
will eat flesh of such unclean animals as Fowls, Pigs, Rats,
Snakes, and even cats. And the other, that they will readmit
in to their caste Andh women detected in a criminal intimacy
with men.
Gond & Pardhan:-
Like the Andhs, the Gonds & Pardhans have adopted
Hindu dress & customs to a larger extent than in a Central
Provinces. The Pardhans are the bards & musician of the
Gonds , & are considered to occupya lower position than
the tribe proper. Together they from about 10 per cent the population
The Gonds have 3 subdivisions-Raj-Gonds, Dadwes, Mokasis. The
name of the last may possibly be derived from the fact that
they held land on privileged tenure under the Chanda kings;
& they rank higher even than the Raj-Gonds, who will take
food at their hands. The Dadwes are the lowest subdivision,
& will take food from either of the other two. Besides these
subcastes, which are endogamous, the Gonds are also divided
in to sections who worship different no. of gods; & no two
persons who have the same no. of gods may marry with each other.
The worshippers of four,five,six,Seven and twelve gods are locally
distinguished the last not being known in the Central Provinces.
The tribe speak Gondi among themselves & they dress like
the Kunbis. They are tenants & labourers & a few are
patels of villages.
Kolam:-
The Kolams are
a Dravidian tribe akin to the Gonds but distinct from them, who
reside principally in the Wun taluk. They have a language of their
own which appears to be derived from Telgu mixed with Gondi &
Marathi words. In some respects they retain veryprimitive customs,
but in dress they can hardly be distinguished from Kunbis. They
are held to be lower than the Gonds Yet they are not considered
as impure by the Hindus, are permitted to enter the Hindu temples.
They worship their implements of agriculture on the last day of
April. The Kolams have a curious ceremony for protecting the village
from diseases.
LANGUAGES
LANGUAGE MARATHI
The principal
language of the District in Marathi, which is spoken by Persons
or 71 percent. Of the population. Yeotmal has the smallest proportion
of Marathi-speakers of the four Berar Districts. The form of the
language used locally is that known as the Berar dialect, and
differs slightly from the pure Marathi of Poona. Long vowels and
especially final ones are very frequently shortened; thus mi and
mi, I; mahi bayko my wife; maha and maha, my. There is a strong
tendency among the lower classes to substitute o for ava and avi;
thus zol for zaval, near; udola for udavila squandered. An is
very commonly used where the Deccan form of the language has and,
especially in the termination of neuter bases, in the suffix ne
of the instrumental, and in the future. Thus as a, so; sangitla.
I is very often interchanged with e and ya; thus dila, della and
dyalla, given; an initial e is commonly pronounced as a ye; thus
ek and yek one. L and n are continually interchanged in the future
tenses. Thus me marin, and marli I shall strike. V is very indistinctly
sounded before lone and short I and e, and is often dropped altogether;
thus isto, fire; is twenty; yal time; In verbs the second person
singular has usually the form of the third person; thus tu ahe,
thou art for tu ahes. In the present tense a is substituted for
e in the terminations of the second a person singular and the
third person plural. Thus tu marta, thou strictest; te martat,
the strike. The habitual past of often used as an ordinary past;
thus to mhane he said.
OTHER
LANGUAGES
Among other
languages Gondi is spoken by 85 percent of the number of Gonds
in the District. The local form of the language differs in some
respects from the standard one, and is a good deal mixed up with
Marathi words. The Kolams are often classed as a Gond tibe, but
their dialect differs widely from the language of the neighbouring
Gonds. In some points Kolami agrees with Telgu, and in other characteristics
with Canarese and connected forms of speech. There are also some
interesting points of analogy with the Toda dialect of the Nilgiris,
and Dr.Grierson remarks that the Kolams must, from a philological
point of view, be considered as the remnants of an old Dravidian
tribe, who have not been involved in the development of the principal
Dravidian languages; or else of a tribe who did not originally
use a Dravidian form speech. At the last census 5000 Kolams or
a third of the total number in the District returned themselves
as speaking Kolami. The District has 36,000 Banjaras and nearly
all of them speak the gipsy dialect named after the caste. This
is a rough kind of western Rajasthani or Marwari, much mixed
with Gujarathi, but with the pronunciation of Marathi , Urdu is
spoken by 29,000 persons, all of whom are Mohammedans, and telugu
by 24,000 persons speak immigrants from madras About 6000 person
speak Hindi, these being immigrants from Hindustan, generically
known as Pardeshi; and 3000, principally Banias from Rajputana,
return Marwari as their language.
RELIGIONS
The statistics of religion show that Hindus constitute 81 percent
of the population, Animists 13%, & Muhammadans 5 %. In 1991
the District had 2568 Jains , & 209 Christians. The proportion
of Animists is higher in Yavatmal than in the other Berar Districts
owing to the comparatively large numbers of Gonds & Kolams.
The Kolams are the most primitive of the tribes, and nearly all
of them are still returned as Animists. Members of this religion
are most numerous in the Kelapur, Wun and Yavatmal talukas. The
Mahammadans, though more numerous than in most district of the
Central Provinces, form a smaller proportion of the population
in Yavatmal than elsewhere in Berar. They reside chiefly in the
Pusad and Darwha talukas, while Wun and Kelapur have only
small numbers of them. Of the total numbers of 30,000 Muharmmadans,
6000 live in the towns. Mahammadan patels hold 103 villages. Some
of the Mahammadans are converted Rajputs and several important
Deshmukh families are divided into Mahammadan and Hindu branches.
There are also Mahammadan Kayaasths, some of whom are hereditary
patwaris or belong to Deshpande families.
