_Fandly Planning Success Stories in Bangladesh and India_ _28_ In 1987, the block had 13 private medical practitioners-three allopathic degree holders, one allopathic diploma holder and the rest with diploma in ayurvedic medium. Almost all of them practiced allopathic medicine. There were _45_ community health guides (CHGs) in _45_ villages-28 of them in the Project Area. The Project Area had 76 trained TBAs, with at least one located in each of the 65 villages. The entire private and public health care personnel and services in the block (192 villages) except CHGs and TBAs were located in only eight villages. People from other villages had to travel up to 12 miles to use the services of qualified medical practitioners. There was apparently no significant difference between the Project and Control Areas in this respect in the pre-Project period. There was no additional health service input of the Project in the Project Area except the services of one ANM (whose primary function was educational and motivational) and some voluntary depot holders of condoms and pills.

# _Socioeconomic Seting_

Kundam block was chosen for the Project because of its relative inaccessibility and socioeconomic backwardness. Thirteen of the 65 villages in the Project Area can be reached on foot only. Another 25 villages become non-motorable during the rainy season in July-September. Situation in the remaining 127 villages of the block constituting the Control Area is more or less similar. Villages located near the Jabalpur-Amarkantak highway can be reached by bus or by car but the inhabitants of most other villages have to walk _5-6_ miles or more. Bullock carts and bicycles are the principal means of transportation.

The educational facilities in Kundam block are very poor and illiteracy very high. Of the 135 primary schools (two per three villages) in 1987, 17 had no builling. Classes were held in the open. According to 1981 census, only 18 percent (7 percent amon,j females) were literate as against 30 percent in rural India. In 1987, there were 15 middle schools, three secondary schools, one village, and 29 adult education centers in the block. About 600 adults were attending adult education centers (20 started by the Kundam Project) and about 350 children were attending 14 nonformal children's educational centers known as balwadis (11 started by the Project).

According to 1981 census, 28 percent of Kundam block labor force were agricultural laborers with no land of their own, but the 1986-87 survey of 20 Project Area villages showed that 61 percent of male and 52 percent of female labor force belonged to that category. The survey showed that 57 percent of women were working as agricultural or nonagricultural laborers-a proportion considerably higher than the all-India average, partly because female labor participation is higher among tribals than nontribals. According **to** the survey, the average monthly household income was around Rs. 290 (about US $20). On the basis of a poverty line of Rs. 550 per month, as specified by India government's Planning Commission, 55 percent of high caste Hindu households in Kundam block were below poverty line and 90 percent among tribals and low castes were so. Tribals and low castes of the block have to borrow money from high caste Hindus at very high interest rates (24 to 36 percent annually) and very often lose their belongings which are mortgaged to the moneylenders. Various rural development schemes of the government offering credit and other facilities have been operating in the block for some time with BDO as a coordinator but, for various reasons, an undue share of the benefits is reaped by the privileged section of population.

Smaller villages away from the highway, usually inhabited by tribals and low caste Hindus, are usually more cohesive and provide more congenial setting for community