Overview

Currenly COW is the only project run by ViDAL.

21 villages are served by two Information providers within a radius of 25 Kms within Mahboobnagar District. They live in one of the villages and commute to outlying villages each day. On the service side, there are three categories of services. They are in the fields of development, commerce and governance.

COW villages

COW villages are no different from many other villages in the region. Some of the major issues impeding development include: caste, politics, illiteracy, uneven rainfall and development imbalances. The villages are plagued by politics that are divided on caste lines. This factor alone has become the single-largest impediment for development. COW villages fall in the drought prone Mahbubnagar District of Andhra Pradesh in India. The district derived its name from Mahbubnagar, the headquarters town which was named after Mir Mahbub Ali Khan, the 7th Nizam of Hyderabad. The area of the district is 18,432 sq. kms.

The region is prone to periodic and recurring drought, making agricultural production risky. The infrastructure (roads, schools, piped water, sanitation, clinics, and public transport) is in poor condition and stretched to the limits in the villages. A push toward cultivating cash crops in a risky environment has led to multiple farmer suicides. As a direct consequence of poverty, the district is said to have around 1, 80,000 child labourers, the highest in Andhra Pradesh.