he condition of rural scheduled caste population in Mewat district, and particularly in Sondh village was found very bad and challenging. The villagers of Sondh were mainly Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Backward Classes (OBCs) which were economically, socially and educationally most backward lot.

The traditional occupation of scheduled caste population was mainly of menial works like scavenging, street cleaning, garbage collection, animal carcass collection, leather goods making in households, etc that were done in very traditional manner without any exposure of scientific and technological innovations in these fields.. Their marketing system was also found rudimentary. Thus, problems existed and need to be addressed include all such related to SCs and OBCs.

Mewat district of Haryana has been identified as one of the backward and minority concentrated districts that severely lag behind in terms of socio-economic parameters of development. A little historical background of the cultural region called Mewat, which was later formed into the 20th district of Haryana, (Map 1 as shown in Fig 1).

Even after India's independence and the formation of Haryana state in 1966, Mewat region remained socio-economic and political backward. It remained backward even after the agricultural prosperity which that Haryana state experienced during green revolution in decades of 1970's and 1980's. Paradoxically, the proximity to the national capital region made Gurgaon District a new millennium hub as an industrial centre in the 1990's. The areas which were demarcated for Mewat district in 2005 remained agriculturally and industrially backward and it lacked vital infrastructure such as education, health, basic amenities viz. railway links for the development of transport and commerce etc. The newly created district with name Mewat had total population of 9.93 lakhs as per 2001, out of which 95.36 per cent was rural and just about 4.64 per cent urban. The population of the minority community, which are the Muslims, account for 70.9 % of the total, with 74.3 % of them being rural population. Majority of the Muslims living in Mewat district are called Meos and currently are listed under the Other Backward Classes (OBCs).

The literacy rate recorded in Mewat district was very low, i.e. 44.07 %. It consisted of 61.53 % of literate males as against 24.26 % literate females. In comparison to the state average literacy of 68.59 %, there was a gap of nearly 24 %. The male-female gap in literacy rates within the district was about 37 %. The sex ratio of Mewat was 894 against the state average of 861 which suggests better sex ratio in comparison to the state figure, but much worse in comparison to the national average of 927. Only 40 % of population constitutes the active workforce. Out of them 35.9% per cent were engaged in cultivation. In the Mewat district, 88.31 % of land falls in the cultivable area, while the net area sown is 76.80. The next to agriculture, dairy is the alternate source of their livelihood as 47.79 % of people were keeping buffalos.

The given paper provides summarized data of SONDH village according to Census 2011 on basis of various parameters like population, castes (SC's and OBC's), literacy rate, number of workers and their occupation. It is concluded that in Sondh village, most of the villagers are from Schedule Caste (SC), which constitutes 44.71 % of total population in Sondh village.

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