Wayand to-day holds over 80000 marginal / small farmer families and several thousands of plantation labourers. The rock-bottom price fall of agro-products experienced in the post-globalization period has put the sustainability of these lot in peril. The impacts & implications are manifested in the forms of:
- Deepening ‘livelihood crisis’ and mounting poverty.
- Deteriorating health situation.
- Mounting mental stress among people leading to various psycho-social problems and even to suicides (Kerala State has the dishounor of having 29.5% suicide rate which is almost three times higher than the national average of 11.5%. In Wayanad alone there have been 1987 suicide instances; most of whom are farmers - during the immediate past six years. During the year 2005 this number has been 320. The number of psychosocial patients keep on increasing.)
- Cultural transition (also promoted by the modern electronic and print media) causing degradation of traditional social & human value systems. The younger generation; -especially the children and adolescents fall easy victims of this transition process. Their mental stress keeps on mounting, ultimately to add to the number of psycho-social patients. A national study reveals that the mental stress rate among the adolescents of about three-fold higher than the national average.
