Vedanthangal situated at a distance of about 80 kilo meter from Chennai, has about
6500 inhabitants and belongs to Acharapakkam panchayat union and development
block.  It is not an isolated village but is the center of a cluster of 27 villages, with a total
population of over 40,000 people within a radius of 10 kilometers.  It is to these villages
that the project is to extend in the course of time,  its services.

The population, 68 % of which are low caste consists mainly of small marginal farmers
or land less laborers with no regular income.  During the working season ( 4 to 5 months
per year during the right after the monsoon rains ) the men earn Rs.25 and women half
of this.  Methods of agriculture are outdated resulting in poor yield.

There are not larger or small industries in the neighborhood.  It is therefore a truly
poverty stricken area, typical of the southern Indian country side in the plains.

With the consequent total lack of health and hygiene, resulting in tuberculosis, skin
disease, leprosy, asthma and so on, due to malnutrition, owing to a deficiency in vitamin
A roughly half the children suffer from night blindness.

The Chennai SCI group, after years of work in the slums of the city, came to the
conclusion that one of the main root causes of the proliferation of the city slums is the
backwardness and the underdevelopment of the rural areas.  This conviction together
with the pressing request, both of the people of Vedanthangal area and the local
government authorities, resulted in the decision to take up a rural development program
in this area.  

The Vedanthangal Panchayat ( local self government body ) donated about 47 acres of
land to SCI India to do the rural development programme in the year  1972.  But SCI
India accepted only 7 acres to started the reclamation and cultivation programme.  

In the rural development project at Vedanthangal, SCI India is doing the following
activities for the past 20 years.  It has strong network with the villages and local
population.  

The activities are:

Education programme  for  village children

Skill development programme for village young girls

Non formal education centers for the adult illiterates and slow Learners

and

Training cum demonstration on herbal farm

Education:  

There is a preparatary school functioning with 40 children.  The age of the children are
3 to 5 years.  There are two teachers and one assistance is taking care of the children.  
The classes function from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. ( Monday to Friday )with a breaf break for
lunch.  The children are given education in more playful manner with more toys, games
and educational aids.  After one or two years the children will go  and join in the
government school situated in Vedanthangal village.  The school will be closed in the
month of May every year as summer vocation.


Skill Development:  

A tailoring unit functioning for the village girls.  There are twenty five girls are on role.  
There is a teacher and assistance teaching the girls.  The training is six month and it is
one of the oldest activity of  the project..  After completion of the programme the girls are
given a certificate and it helps them to find employment in export garment houses.


Non formal education:  

There are three non formal education centers functioning in villages.  The children after
school hour collected and given extra coaching and the centers help the children to get
good marks and moral instruction and educating them to be a responsile citizens.  In the
schools there would be minimum of 70 to 80 children and the teacher cannot given
attention to all the children and the children who sit from the fourth row onwards lack
attention and  not concentrating in education.  In the SCI education centers the children
are given individual attention and the instructors are doing their service not for wages
but for the future of their own village  children.


Herbal Garden:  

It is a new programme and we expolore the possibilities of cultivating herbs in a piece of
land in Vedanthangal village.  The SCI Catalonian volunteers are helping us financially.  
All the farmers in the village cultivate paddy or  groundnut and both are water intensive
crops.  The villages have less or no water even for drinking.  The prime aim of the
herbal garden is to find a suitable alternative crop which has good market , less inputs
and less water consuming.