Demografically

To get some idea of our work area, you will find some information below:

The 22 villages that make up our working area together have 39,686 inhabitants. The number of families is 7,264.
The male-female ratio is 1000:946
There are 5,548 children aged 0 - 6 years. The boy-girl ratio is 1000: 910. That's a significant difference. We have requested information about this.
96% of 6-year-old children go to school. However, given the quality of the education offered, the education problem is greater than this percentage suggests.
There are 19,454 people who work. 20,232 people are not in work, including children and “retirees”. The quotation marks indicate that pension is not yet generally customary.
In the region, a distinction is made between “main workers”: 16,224 people, consisting of 9,674 men and 6,550 women and “Marginal Workers”: 3,230 people. That are 1,516 men and 1,714 women.
63.5% of men can read and write. This is 49% for women.
Under the tab “Working area socio-cultural” we provide brief information about castes. Across the country there are over 200 million dalits (16.5% of the population). In the Jalihal region this is 12.7% or 5,000 people who live at the bottom of society. In that group are the women who form our target group. These are the people who, within the Hindu traditions, do not get a chance to improve their situation.
There is another group of people who are disadvantaged in Indian society. Those are people who are part of “Scheduled Tribes”; to be translated as: people who live in a certain tribal context. In our work area, the 2011 census (from which all the above figures come from) counted 58 people.
Various professions are practiced in the villages: shopkeepers and salesmen, teachers, nurses, taxi drivers, mini-hoteliers and farm workers.
Especially young people who have studied go to the cities to find a good job, to Sangli, Belgaum, Hubli, Puna, Bangalore and Mumbai. Think of nurses, technicians, engineers, receptionists, managers, etc.
Approximately 30% of the unskilled people leave for 5 to 6 months to cut sugar cane or go to the brick industry. In the years when there is sufficient rainfall, that percentage is lower.

Wages differ widely. Below are some examples:

Occupation	Wages per day (Approximately) in euro’s:
	Jalihal	Sangli	Pune	Mumbai/Bangalore
Unskilled labor	2,00	3,50	7,00	7,00
Skilled Labor	3,50	7,00	11,40	14,00
Drivers	4,20	8,40	14,00	16,80
Technicians	4,20	7,00	14,00	21,00
Nurses (female)	No jobs	70,00 to 100,00 per month	170,00 to 250,00 per month	210,00 to 250,00 per month

With a diploma, young people have good opportunities in the cities. There is no labor market for them in the villages of our region.