Echur- at a glance

Echur is divided into 2 prominent zones viz. Echur village and Echur Colony. Echur colony comprises of 25 homes and their livelihood is predominantly salt extraction. Echur village comprises of 125 homes and residents of Echur bank on agriculture for their livelihood.

As far as agriculture is concerned, people in Echur grow paddy, groundnut, snake gourd, brinjal and ladyfinger. Each family that has agriculture as the main source of income earns around 3.2 lacs p.a. Most of the farmers use personal wells and a common canal for irrigation, but since this supply is not sufficient to sustain agriculture round the year, villagers usually migrate to Chennai or to nearby places and work as contractual labor. Two crops are cultivated around the year. There are lots of people involved in manufacturing and fixing of flooring-tiles. We found that some families have traditionally been practising a single profession over several generations, such as a family with three generations of barbers.

Women in the village are encouraged to work and are an important contributor to household income. In fact women are proactive to such an extent that they initiated a protest for removal of a local liquor shop that was opened near the village and happened to be a constant source of disturbance.

Inter-caste marriages are not very prevalent although there is some flexibility when it comes to love marriages. There is no restriction on the basis of villages. Major Hindu-festivals are celebrated at the village level although minorities celebrate their own festivals.