WHERE WE WORK

FEATHERS is working in Thiumangalam Block in Madurai District, Tamil Nadu including the Thirumangalam Municipality. Thirumangalam Block consists of 38 Village Panchayats and the Municipality is divided into 27 Wards. The total population including both rural and urban areas is 2.24 lakhs.  The rural population is 173,168 including 87684 male and 85484 female living in 38 panchayats and urban population is 51,154 living in 27 Wards. 

Agriculture is a major source of living for the people in this block, which is predominately rainfed farming with low production and productivity of crops such as millets and pulses. The literacy rate is 81.25 percent. The percentage of cultivators has reduced from 15.64% to 6.91% in the 2011 Census and there is marginal increase of agricultural labourers to the tune of 37.95%. There are 30% of the total population living below poverty line. 

IMR is considered as a key indicator of health services, nutritional levels, poverty and educational level of the people. The IMR fs Thirumangalam Block is 23.4, which is higher among all the 14 blocks. Similarly, the MMR is 389, which is higher than the MMR of the Madurai District – 120, also the still birth rate of the Thirumangalam block is 17.7, which was higher than the overall still birth rate of Madurai 13.4 in 2011. An impressive thing is the Gross Enrollment Raio at Primary level is 108.365% in 2013-14, which was higher than the Madurai City, which was 106.28%. Only 26.73% of the households have toilets compared to the district average of 52.16% in 2013-14.

With the overall Human Development Index of 040, the Thirumangalam Block stands 10 among the 14 Blocks in Madurai District. Thirumangalam scored the Gender Inequality Index of 0.19, which is worst among the 14 blocks. The GII is an indicator of Human Development that encompasses Health, Empowerment and Labour indices. 

FEATHERS is working on building a model in the following spheres in the Thirumangalam Municipality and villages in the rural Thirumangalam Block. It has partnered with the like-minded institutions and mainstream departments like Department of Elementary Education to design and implement the working models in the following aspects:

• Community based early intervention for addressing the problems of the children with development delays. 
• Remedial education for the children identified with one or more learning disabilities like dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia, auditory and visual processing disorders. 
• Special education for the children with intellectual disabilities by way of like-skill training, rehabilitation, physiotherapy, occupational and speech therapy, counselling to parents. 
• Promoting art-Integrated Learning among the children to enhance their creating and cognitive abilities, and hasten their learning and knowledge acquisition.