Social economy of a tribal village on Indo -Tibetan border

This is a study into the social eco nomy of a remotely located tribal village in Himachal Pradesh. The village studied, is called Chhitkul, which is the last village on the Indo Tibetan border in district Kinnaur and remains buried under snow for 5-6 months in the year. It is one of the very few village studies for which the field work has been done by the authors themselves by continuous stay with the people in the village. The village presents several peculi arities in occupational pattern, crop husbandry, livestock rearing, housing, social customs, marital system, role of women in a polyandrous group, distillation and consumption of liquor, mode of living, authority of village deity and Her progressive outlook, etc.

The study has brought out vast scope for the development of this village, located in a difficult terrain. For reasons of extremely cold climate, only one crop can be grown in a year. As such sheep and goat rearing makes the economy agro-pastoral. The suggestions are based on the local conditions and needs. These include provision of wool shearing machines, machine for wool ginning, improved wool spinning wheels, wool based cottage industries, marketing faci lities, saw mill, know-how and do how in vegetable production, health and child welfare schemes, mini hydro-electric generator, etc.