SETTLEMENT STUDIES

We recently visited Mategoan, a small farming village near Ellora. The village has a population of about 1500 people, all of whom are engaged in primary activities like farming for their livelihood. Various communities live in the village, with invisible boundaries separating them.

Most villagers earn their living by working on their own farms or being employed on someone else's farm. The village has several places of worship that serve as communal spaces for weddings, rituals, programs, and play areas for children.

The government has established a school in the village that provides education and serves a free midday meal to all its students. Since the school only offers education up to the 8th grade, students travel to a nearby village for further studies. Additionally, there are two kindergartens in the village.

The Gram Panchayat is the main institution in Mategoan, taking care of the villagers' needs

Our group studied and observed the various types of vegetation growing in that region. Due to the region's rich soil, there is a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, grains, and millets. We also examined the types of farms present, the farming techniques used, and the local methods employed by the farmers. We noted that cotton and jowar (sorghum) were the most commonly grown crops. The village is surrounded by farms and has three dams and two factories: one producing jaggery and the other processing cotton. 

Most people in the village are engaged in farming. We spoke with them to learn about their daily routines, activities during their free time, sources of entertainment, and how the village operates. This helped us understand many aspects of village life.

We learned about different types of farms and vegetation by walking through the farms and gaining insights into their areas and farming processes. For example, in one picture, we saw a tractor processing and collecting chana (chickpeas). We recorded the entire process and marked each farm using different symbols, integrating the locations of dams, rivers, and wells within the farms.