Free Poker Online

The Surest Way to Win at Poker

Years ago, I went through a period of time when I played poker regularly at a local cardroom. While there, I became aware of one particular guy who played at the same cardroom. They called him Lopez. Lopez was the only player who always seemed to win. Some days, I would grind out a small profit, but Lopez would really rake it in.

I noticed something about Lopez. Every time I looked at him, he was already looking at me. It was eerie and a bit nerve-wracking. Whenever I saw the way were his eyeballs staring at me. At first I did not see much of it, but after a while I became curious. I have a study by Lopez. I wanted to know what this guy has won a good poker player, what made him so consistently. Then I found out. He was always looking outward.

The most reliable way to win the poker is: outward-looking. This is always the case, whether you play online or people, high-risk or low of the shares, or any other poker games. See what I mean is, your people and the outward focus of the activities around you. Familiar with your consciousness, you think this is outside of their own. You set aside your own thoughts and feelings, you aim at the outside world's attention. Simply put, your own thoughts out.

I have noticed a correlation. Invariably, those players who consistently win at poker are those who watch others like hawks. They are the players who are always looking around the table, studying everyone, paying attention to everything.

That does not describe the average poker player. Ninety-nine percent of people who play are always thinking about themselves. They are pondering their cards, their money, their position in the hand. They are thinking about their choices and their dilemmas. They have a thousand contemplations, and every one concerns themselves. How should I play these cards? What are my pot odds? Am I playing well? Am I likely to win at this table? What kind of cards am I getting? How did I lose that last hand? How can I play better? How is my money holding up? Should I cash out? Should I set a limit? How do I appear to the other players? These are the thoughts that fill the mind of the average poker player. It’s all me, me, me.

The average player thinks about things from his own perspective. He will base his decisions on the strength of his hand, his pot odds, his supply of chips, how much he has won or lost and the advice he read in that poker book last night. Again, it’s all me, me, me.

That is not a winning approach to the game. Even the most well-reasoned thinking along those lines is destined to fail. You may be thinking smartly and accurately, but if your thinking is directed inward, it is no good. If you are thinking only about yourself and your situation, you will come up short.

Forget about yourself. You do not exist. Focus on the other players in the game. Look around the table. Pay attention to everyone. Notice everything. Observe the behavior of every player at your table. Be aware of every action (and inaction) occurring at every moment. Even when you are not in a hand, watch anyway. Always. Constantly. Intently.

You do not need to consciously interpret what you are seeing. You do not need to figure out what any of it means. Just watch. Your subconscious mind will know how to interpret what you see. Even if you think this is not helping, do it anyway. You are going to be sitting there spending time, right? You may as well be paying attention. There will be plenty of time later to contemplate how you performed and what sort of player you are. For now, think only of the other players. Put yourself out there with them. Be them. Think their thoughts. Their thoughts matter; your thoughts do not. What they are thinking is valuable to you; what you are thinking is old news.

Don’t pore over your cards. Don’t study your chips. Don’t regurgitate all the poker advice you’ve gotten over the years. Get all that garbage out of your mind. Don’t play the cards; play the players!

Doing this does not require that you change your style of social interaction at the table. Be as talkative or as quiet as you like, but all the while, be paying attention. This is the surest way to win at poker.

You may need discipline to pay attention, but I assure you, if you make it a habit, it will pay off big. Gradually, your game will improve. In time, you will be playing better and pocketing more cash. What’s funny is, you may not even know why. You may not detect any difference in your playing style. Your success may be a mystery to you. That’s how looking outward works.

Very few people, it seems, will reveal this concept of looking outward. Occasionally, a poker book will suggest that you “observe other players at your table.” But that is not enough. I am telling you to lose yourself and devote your full consciousness to the other players. Give them your unwavering focus the entire time. Nothing less.

Jamie Gold won the main event at the 2006 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. And he didn’t just win the event, he destroyed his opponents all the way through the entire two-week ordeal. Seldom has any one player so dominated a poker tournament, as Jamie Gold did during the 2006 World Championship.

Immediately after his victory, he was asked how he did it. What was his secret? What was the biggest factor in his amazing performance? Here is his answer: “I’m playing against the other players, while they are trying to play their cards. I sit down at every table with the same strategy. I want to find out how they’re playing, and then I want to figure out how to beat them, whereas they’re just trying to figure out how to get the best cards and get their money in there. So, sooner or later, I seem to be able to trick them into giving me all their money.”

What do I listen to Jamie's answer? I ask myself: I'll tell you he was looking outside! While he was thinking about myself, was paying attention to other players. Easy. Can be more powerful this strategy also anything yet. By Jamie did a lot of talking during the competition. Everyone interaction with other players said how much the table. However, watching intently all the while he talks, he was. He was speaking style. His strategy has been outside.

I realize this advice runs counter to conventional wisdom. Popular books and seminars preach that the way to improve your life is to get in touch with your inner self. They say you should discover who you are and then work on your deep problems. That’s fine. Inner work has its place. But it is no good at all when you are seated at a poker table. There is a place for resolving inner conflicts, but a poker game is not it. Inner reflection is exactly the wrong thing to be doing while playing poker. You should be doing the opposite. You should be looking outward.

Self-Improvement Workshops teach you to look inward, and claimed that self-reflection leads to peace of mind. That may be true, but you should see your self-improvement techniques during downtime, the practice is not when you are facing opponents at the poker table. Competition is the wrong time to focus on themselves. Competition is the time to acquire the knowledge about your opponents, and the way to do that is to be sought outside of yourself. These days, with all the preaching about the value of looking inward, I want a little compensation to offer. Allow me a bell for the wisdom of searching for strikes.

Lopez understood an important fact as he sat in that cardroom with me years ago. He realized that the secret to his success lay in his ability to tap into others. Lopez was a wise man. By the way, I later learned that Lopez moved to Los Angeles and made enough money playing poker to send his son to Stanford.

Always pay keen and constant attention to others. Look outward. I realize that thinking about yourself is more habitual. It is the easy thing, the typical thing everyone does. Thinking about others is rare among people. But so is success. You might find it hard to aim for success, but as Tom Hanks said in the movie A League of Their Own: “It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. The hard is what makes it great.”

Tags: attention, Don, Jamie Gold, Las Vegas, lopez lopez, player, Poker, poker games, poker player, thoughts and feelings, time

Texas Holdem Hands – Which One Is The Most Profitable?

When people think of the most profitable texas holdem hands, the immediate poker hands that come to mind are AA, KK, QQ, and AK. Now these poker hands may be profitable, but are also the highest cracked hands out all hands. Believe it or not, texas holdem odds are in your favor by playing low suited connector cards instead of large hands listed above. You’re probably saying WHAT??? What on earth are you talking about? Well if you don’t know what suited connectors are they are hands such as 78 suited, 89 suited, 45 suited, 67 suited, and my all time favorite ace cracker is 9 10 suited. I couldn’t even tell you how many times I have personally cracked another players pocket AA’s with 9 10 suited. The best time to play low suited connectors are in 9 seater cash games. This is where low suited connectors shine. With low suited connectors and 4+ callers and even a raise, you need to call up to 4 times the big blind at most. You also want as many people in the hand as you can. More than likely if you call the raise it will pay off big time, usually hitting a straight or flush draw on the flop. If you completely miss the flop, get out. But if you have a straight or flush draw it is time to step up your game and make a move. Scared money will never make money. You have to play to win and the majority of winners that have won big have taken risks with their bankroll and not just sat on it waiting for aces, kings, queens, or AK.

True profitable online poker players playing cash games will call a raise with any suited connector 9 times out of 10. It pays off more times than not of hitting an incredible flop. It’s too hard for someone to let go of their pocket AA’s. I mean honestly ask yourself how many times in your life you have folded pocket Aces? Not to many I am SURE. A poker pro will see a straight or flush on the board and know there is a chance they could be beat. Laying down your aces is almost impossible, but if you do it and your opponent shows they had you beat, well even though you lost you gained self-discipline and knowledge. Knowledge is power in poker and you can’t put a price tag on it. Gaining as much experience as you can and studying poker hands and situations as much as you can will go a long way in your professional poker career. In no time you can turn yourself from a nobody into a somebody if you have a never give up attitude. Now you know how to play texas holdem cash games for huge profits. The only way to truly win one of the largest poker pots is by playing suited connectors. They are sleeper hands and definitely worth playing! I wish you the best of luck in your poker career.

Tags: cracked hands, holdem, pocket, Poker, scared money, suited connectors, texas holdem odds, time

Free Web games

Perhaps one of the most popular uses of the internet and the web is playing of games by people around the world. Imagine playing a game of chess with someone in another country in realtime! Before the web this was done by post! Today one can play multi-player games with people around the world and chat with them in real time.
Some sites now allow several java games allowed to play in real time. A brief description of these is as follows:
Arcade games
These include eye-hand combinations and a good response time. Example – asteroids, swimming pool, javanoid, collapse, battletank, etc.
Puzzle games
Towers of Hanoi, Maze Manufacturers Knights dilemma, Slider, etc., require logic and a test of mental reasoning. Puzzles are a great way to stimulate the mind and to think in parallel and different ways. Sudoku is an example of a popular puzzle game.
Word games
Designed especially for children who can be played by adults. The traditional crossword does not exhaust the diversity of the World Games are available. Scrabble and countless other puns improve our language skills and imagination.
Sports games
These include games such as baseball, football, soccer, tennis, cricket, snowboarding, etc. Most of these games are rendered with realistic graphics and other features of the game.
Card Games
Playing cards, spider, pyramid, and free cells are some of the popular card game. Card games can be easily monitored with the Java applet.

Web Games, please see: Free Web For more information about the game,

Tags: free cells, game, Hanoi, mental reasoning, multi player games, reasoning puzzles, time, Web, World

Financial Status of Rural People

WHO ARE TRIBALS?

The word “tribal” or Adivasi brings to our mind a picture of half-naked men and women, with arrows and spears in their hands, feathers in their heads, and speaking an unintelligible language, their lives often combined with myths of savagery and cannibalism. However, any person having visited a tribal village will be surprised and thrilled to see a community living close to nature, peace-loving, equitable and with advanced cultural/social forms. Our knowledge about the tribals is very limited, leading us to believe many myths at the cost of their dignity. Even when majority of the communities in the world kept changing their life-styles, competed with each other and developed materialistic instincts to keep pace with the “progress” of the world, there were communities still living in line with their traditional values, customs and beliefs. The exploitative mindset of the mainstream society made these communities recede often into forests and high-altitude mountains, where they could continue to live in peace with Nature and their unpolluted surroundings. As the so-called civilized communities of the mainstream society neither could comprehend the values and ideals of these communities nor had the patience to understand their lifestyles, the mainstream world branded them variously as natives, uncivilized people, Aboriginals, Adivasis, Tribals, Indigenous people etc. In India, we mostly refer them as Adivasis/Girijans. In spite of the merciless treatment by the “civilized” men and the socio-economic perils faced by these communities all over the world, the tribals continue to live in the continents of Africa,Asia, North and South America and Australia.

The Imperial Gazetteer of India, 1911, defines a tribe as a “collection of families bearing a common name, speaking a common dialect, occupying or professing to occupy a common territory and is not usually endogamous though originally it might have been

so”. Another definition of a tribe by D.N. Majumdar is that “a tribe is a collection of families or group of families bearing a common name, members of which occupy the same territory, speak the same language and observe certain taboos regarding marriage,

profession or occupation and have developed a well-assessed system of reciprocity and

mutuality of obligations”.

Can the rural tribes manage their saving? Can the rural tribes aware about the schemes?

These are questions that have engaged the attention of people trying to design microfinance products for the tribes. In the past the tribes were always addressed from the supply side through “schematic finance”, now we have reached a stage where we need patience to understand the financial status, financial flows, savings and their attributes in terms of security ,liquidity and risk-return relationship preferred by the rural tribes. It is known that not only the well to do, but also the tribes have patterns in income and expenditure and have evolved products that take care of these ups and downs in financial flows. The objective of the study was to understand the financial flows of the rural tribes so that a better design of savings and loan products in the microfinance sector can be planned.To fill up the gaps between inflows and outflows, the poor need intermediaries in the form of institutions that help them manage the flows. In all

most all villages the private moneylender performs this gap filling function .The debate between private money lenders and tribes are the common issues in the local economy.

. The moneylender provides access to credit, and there are arguments that the image of the moneylender is unnecessarily tarnished in the literature( Chamala and Sharma, 2003) There are counter arguments on whether this fits with the development intervention to be undertaken [Chavan 2003]. There are arguments that because of traditional relationships of trust, it is almost impossible to replace the moneylender, but possible to redefine the relationship by providing an atmosphere for formal competition [Sriram 2002].There researchers focus on general poor but this paper concentrated on poor tribes.

It is important to understand the roles of each of the players providing finance for the tribes and how they manage money.The most commonly used measure of poverty is based on income or consumption levels. People are considered BPL if their consumption

or income below a minimum required in order to satisfy the basic needs and wants. This level is considered

for rural areas and 2,100 calories for urban areas. These calorie norms were expressed in monetary terms as Rs 49.09 and Rs 56.64 per capita per month for rural and urban areas, respectively at 1973-74 prices. These figures were updated again with the consumer price indices (CPI) in 1994-95. The updated numbers are Rs 228 and Rs 305 per capita per month, for rural and urban areas, respectively [Pradhan and Subramanian 2001; G1993)..

India has the largest concentration of tribal population in the world. The tribal are the children of nature and their lifestyle is conditioned by the eco-system. India due to its diverse ecosystems has a wide variety of tribal population. Tribes people constitute 8.14% of the total population of the country, numbering 84.51 million (2001 Census). There are 697 tribes notified by the Central Government under Article 342 of the Indian Constitution with certain tribes being notified in more than one State. More than half the Scheduled Tribe population is concentrated in the States of Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Jharkhand and Gujarat whereas in Haryana, Punjab, Delhi, Pondicherry and Chandigarh no community has been notified as a Scheduled Tribe.

As per 2001 census there were 3.21 lakhs Scheduled Tribes in Kerala State The Tribal population in Kerala State is 2 ??of the total population in the State. The literacy

status of STs was 57.22??in 1991 as against the general literacy rate of 89.81?. Major

portion of the STs are seen in the districts Wayanad, Idukky and Palakkad. The poverty

ratio of the ST families estimated as on 31..03..1 998 was 35.89?. This was 48.47??as

per the State Survey in 1992. Nearly 23??of the tribal families are living within forest

areas. There are 35 tribal communities in the State. Among them Paniyar (nearly 20??) forms the majority. The Paniya and Adiya communities in Wayanad District are very

backward and most of them landless agricultural labourers. There are 5 Primitive tribal

groups (PTGs) viz., Kattunaikan, Cholanaikan, Koragas, Kadar and Kurumbas. These

398 Groups are the most vulnerable communities among the tribals and are all below poverty Line. They constitute 5??of the total tribal population in the State. As per the survey conducted in 1996-97 the population of PTGs was 16678 consisting of 4406 families. . They belong to 35 distinct communities including the primitive tribal groups such as Cholanaikan, Kattunaikans, Kurumbas, Kadars and Koragas. They constitute nearly 4.8% of the Scheduled Tribe population. There are 69,444 ST households in the State while in 1981 it was only 52,421. The present number of ST households is estimated around 84,000. The Scheduled Tribe Population is even more unevenly distributed in the Districts. Among the Districts Wayanad has the highest tribal Population nearly 36??of the Tribal Population. Idukky and Palakkad account for another 26?. The lowest representation of tribal population is in Alappuzha District

This paper try to understand and map the financial flows of the tribes and how do they manage their money available to them? The paper is organised into five sections. Section II looks at the literature. Section III has the geographical setting, methodology, sample size, design and administration of the questionnaire. Section IV contains findings of the study. We conclude with Section V – discussing the issues that need to be addressed at a larger scale and also how this study can be taken forward, while identifying the limitations of the current study.

Literature Review

The Governments and Financial intermediaries play a key role for uplifting the tribes in our country.The state has intervened in this segment to address the issues

of inequity from time to time. It has not only created institutional mechanisms, but also has had targeted schemes that help the tribes for eradicating their poverty and economic upliftment. However, most of the efforts have been supply-driven and have looked at the credit and not the savings needs of the poor. The microfinance institutions (MFIs) have

Financial Status of Tribes A Study in Wayanad District

A village-level study conducted in Wayanad district of Kerala attempted to map the financial status of the tribes and the funds flow indicated that the overall asset-savings-income profile of the tribes was not alarming. However, most of the assets and savings are liquid, forcing the poor to borrow at high cost. The study reveals the failure of financial institutions to penetrate the savings and loan market. It also reconfirms earlier findings that health-related expenses are one of the major causes of indebtedness amongst the tribes

Still now reliable financial services are not widely available for offering of credit by MFIs is pigeonholed into the ‘grameen’ type with little flexibility and the self-help group

type with more flexibility, concluded by (Smita Parhi and M S Sriram 2006) and they addressed the issues of financial flow.The loan products available in the formal sector do not address the needs of the poor.Therefore, there is still a gap in the needs of the poor and the offerings [Fisher and Sriram 2002]. They need money in lumps and finding ways

to meet such requirements is a challenge. Savings is nothing but the choice of not consuming cash. This is a fundamental and unavoidable first step in money management. We should look at issues pertaining to savings and credit together, to understand

the needs of the poor [Rutherford 2002].There are some recent studies focusing on financial flows of the poor. The MicroSave-Africa has done a series of studies to

provide financial toolkits for bankers and others. These studies recognise the growing interest in introducing savings products in MFIs. The MicroSave and the consultative group to assist the poor (CGAP) collaborated to study the dynamics of institutional

change in transformation of a microcredit institution to a MFI [Wright, Christen and Martin 2000]. They studied Association for Social Advancement (ASA), which is an important model for microcredit institutions planning to introduce savings products.The ASA was a microcredit institution working only on credit delivery and recovery system based on grameen methodology. Rutherford (2000) argues that the best way to designa product is to ask people about their own preferences, because they are the best judges.

. Ruthven and Kumar (2002) argue that the success of the moneylenders, deposit collectors, pawnbrokers who reach people where others fail, is in providing lump sums instantly, with no security and also regular savings devices on a sufficiently small-scale basis. There are many tricks that the formal institutions need to learn from informal players if they want to widen their client base to reach the poor . On savings, Wright (1999) argues that in many instances the poor have “illiquidity preference” which is a

committed savings mechanism that prohibits them from withdrawing in response to trivial needs and allows them to escape from the demands of their relatives for loans or assistance. It was also found that poor give importance to security and liquidity

aspect of savings and do not look for significant returns.Rutherford (2002) did a one year study using financial diaries to understand the financial flows of 42 low-income Bangladeshi families. The study revealed that better managed MFIs were considered “reliable” among the formal and informal financial service providers The factors associated with becoming poor were quite different from the factors associated

with escaping poverty. Therefore, the programmes of the state needed to get an appropriate focus [Krishna 2003]. A study in,12 villages of Rajasthan found that diversification of income sources; irrigation and information on various opportunities were the key factors in overcoming the poverty trap. The social factors that pull them into the poverty trap were mostly not in their control. Even the programmes of state aimed

at poverty reduction were unable to neutralise the negative effects of these social factors. Many times assistance from the state was unable to trickle down to the grassroots. However, Krishna (2003) has argued that the state support through poverty reduction

schemes had a positive effect in making poverty more tolerable. A similar study in Gujarat showed a different picture. Gujarat being economically sound and more industrialised, it was expected a priori that poverty reduction would Rajasthan [Krishna et al 2003]. The authors argued that falling into poverty is not just the converse of escaping from poverty but more than that. It is evident that there is considerable interest amongst scholar in examining the financial flows of the poor. Our study is different from what we have reviewed. It focuses on regions recognized, as backward. The objective of our study is twofold.

1 To understand the financial flow of tribes through empirical analysis.

2 To study the saving habits and credit behaviours..

Methodology

A questionnaire was designed to capture data on various parameters. The design ensured that we use significant events in the last decade as time markers to gather financial data on how these events were managed. We also had asset purchase and sale as additional

markers. These helped us in associating the financial flows – savings, borrowings (both formal and informal) with the ups and downs of a family,and in triangulating the indebtedness data.

Sample selection: choice of the area and village: This study has its focus on families defined as tribal. All families under the “below poverty line (BPL)” category fell into our focus population. It is not our intention to debate the methodology adopted by the state in defining the tribal. As the idea of the study is to look at how tribal managetheir financial flows This is based on the presumption that the findings would be used

for developing financial products that would be offered to a continuum of clients from the very poor upwards. The artificial boundary of a poverty line is only helpful in drawing the sample. While we wanted to base the study in some of the most backward districts in India, the choice of Wayanad was made purposively. The selection of wayanad was driven not only by its general backwardness, but also the geographical backgrounds .

Wayanad formed November 1 1980 as the 12th district and most backward district in Kerala,it is 3.79% urbanized. Wayanad district stand first in the case of adivasi population(about 36%) among other district in the state.

Design of questionnaire: For collecting household data, a detailed questionnaire was designed, with a view to capture financial flows of families over a long horizon of time. The base data were the demographic and asset profile of a household. Other data were built around this to get the financial history of the household. We collected details of income, indebtedness and savings. We sought inputs from local resource persons to include questions/ asset in the checklists specific to the geographical region.

We collected information on the income flows, agricultural land, physical assets, saving habits, loan transactions and the details of the events that happened in the family in the last 10 years. Although the questionnaire was not divided into different stages, each question collected specific information. This collectively gave an idea of the financial flows of a family. In the first part we collected data on the general family details, including income, inward and outward remittances. The second part collected information on landholding and details of other physical assets, including dwelling and livestock details. In this process we captured the information on financial transactions while purchasing or selling assets, the mode of financing and the purpose of purchase. The third part focused on the physical assets, where we captured the information on mode of financing, purpose of purchase, and its value. If any asset has been sold, we found the amount realised from the sale. By seeking this information, we tried to understand the process of acquisition and sale of assets and the circumstances under which they are acquired or sold. In the fourth part, we captured savings and indebtedness details

of the family. We also asked the respondents to rank the sources with whom they had savings and loan transactions to get a feedback on their comfort levels, details on accessibility, costs, security and liquidity of the products they used. We also asked

them the amount of maximum savings and loans and the source where it has been parked or drawn in the last 10 years. This roughly gave us an idea of the reach of the financial institutions and at the same time told us about the extent of convenience and faith the poor placed on these sources. It helped us find which of the formal or informal source provided most acceptable product. Similar details were collected on indebtedness. In the last part we collected details of the events that occurred in the last 10 years – such as marriage of the children, health expenses and purchase of assets or funeral expenses. These event details capture the financial flows involved with birth, death, education, marriage and emergencies. This gave insights into how such events are financed and managed. The questions on which we had difficulty in getting data were about health-related problems and expenses. They were unwilling to talk about these issues. These details were collected in a circumspect manner. Data were not forthcoming on some sensitive issues as well. As this is a tribal area, there is a prevalence of bride price as against dowry in the plains In this area people had a small piece of land, productivity was

low and most of the produce was consumed. The levels of monetisation were also low. Imputing a value for self-consumption was therefore difficult. Using events as time markers were useful, but that gave us the data on financial flows at the event point. However, several respondents were unable to articulate their outstandings, due to low levels of awareness on aspects of repayment and the split between interest and principal.

The data was collected using men and women investigators. We found it was better to use women investigators for data collection. Using women helped us because: – Respondent-women available for a longer part of the day. Therefore, chances of drawing a blank or need to revisit the household were minimal. – Women had the time to patiently answer the questionnaire and were able to recall details more clearly than men, and responded

to women investigators well. – Women were not suspicious and did not have a tendency to hide. However, the downside of collecting data exclusively from women put a question on accuracy. Ideally this data should have been triangulated by a short interview of the men. But due to constraints of time, this could not be done.

Findings

1 Major sources of money transaction in the village are Village moneylenders,

Shop keepers; Family and relatives, Banks , Co-operatve Society and SHG

.

2 General household and employment: We used data from50 households from which we collected information. These 50households had total 226 individuals – an average of around five persons per household. The basic demographics are given in Table 2. Usually areas of poverty are associated with a high prevalence of child labour. Our pilot indicates that, of the 85 children (under the age of 15), 45 were perusing some vocation or the other, mainly in agriculture, procurement of minor forest produce (MFP) and

travelling to town to work in non-farm enterprises. Of the others above the age of 18, there were only six persons who claimed to be unemployed. Only 45 children of the total 85 under the age of 15 are studying. The other 40 children who were not in school might

Or employed by a number of trivial or otherwise, these families choose not to display or too young to work. Low level of education (see Table 3). Nader included in the most backward areas of education, one in the country. There is no one beyond the primary level has been reached, about two-thirds of people in the two-thirds of education, are illiterate. Employment opportunities are mostly seasonal in nature. In view of this, there is an opportunity to introduce financial products, assistance in straightening out these poor cash flow. Employment conditions as detailed in Table 4.

3 Income: Households had income from agricultural and non-agricultural sources. The income from non-agricultural sources was higher than from agriculture (Table 5). Continuous drought for the past years and non-availability of cultivable land might have driven them to seek income from non-agricultural activities Many persons from the village go to other city to work with non-farm enterprises. Connection with the city has played a major role in diversification of livelihood opportunities. The new income streams discovered out of diversification from the present job has pumped in extra cash to the regular cash flow . High debt had also forced them to come out of the village

and look for alternatives that fetch them regular cash flows. Sometimes the income is in kind. We captured this by converting the flows into monetary terms. For instance, grass and MFP collected, contributed significantly to the income flow of the household. These were monetised. In the upper end households where the income is more than Rs 4,000 per capita we found that more than one member of the family got regular work in city. Some of them also had land, adding to their flows. Although we did not find households abandoning agriculture, Table 6 shows that agriculture is not lucrative and finding wage

employment seems to be an alternative. The households falling in the lower income group, continued depending on agriculture, and were unable to move out of the poverty trap.

Four assets: the family-owned assets listed in Table 7. We can see from the list, apart from cutlery, bed and basic agriculture to realize, there are pretty small, in the form of the assets of the household. The most important asset of the family silver, gold, arts and crafts materials. The results found that, in the majority of the field visit to the listed assets are usually not for sale. The village people prefer to take in times of crisis the interest rate is very high, rather than any liquidation of assets, if they need to sell their assets, they will be the first sale of livestock, but it will not come into contact with jewelry. All of the respondents have their own residential units. Some have two residential units, but the use of these two families. Three families have leased land, and some families have in the land lease.

5 Borrowings: The profile of borrowings is shown in Table 8. The maximum number of loan accounts was with moneylenders. However, the average size of a loan from moneylender was smaller than other sources. In all, borrowing from moneylender

and other informal sources accounted for almost 85 per cent of the number of loans and 80 per cent of the amounts borrowed. Borrowing from relatives and from commercial banks had a significantly high average loan size. There was no significant difference between the source from which Group I and Group II had borrowed.4 It appears that SHG was not an option for Group I households. The formal sector has been unable to reach this segment of the population. The reasons might pertain to transaction size and costs. Even the SHGs were working with the upper end of the poor families. When we compared loan amounts and borrower profiles, we found that the commercial banks have a bias towards making loans for productive assets (Table 9). The bank had given one

loan for social consumption5 out of five loans made. The health related expenses, contributed to higher expenditure. The borrower portfolio was diverse for the moneylender. The moneylender had extended loans for consumption, social consumption,

health expenses, buying assets, and also to meet charges for litigation. The moneylender loans for assets were mainly for the purchase of livestock. All SHG loans were for consumption. People borrowed mainly for consumption, social consumption and health-related expenses from the family sources. The community usually funded the social events in the village – the expectation was that the recipient would pitches in when there

was a similar event in others’ family. Therefore, the borrowings for marriage and funerals were usually from informal sources. Only one loan from the family sources was for buying assets. Tables 9 and 10 indicate that people borrowed from moneylenders for asset purchase. Borrowing from moneylenders for emergency purposes, is understandable, but the larger share in asset purchase indicates that there is scope for formal institutions to step in. We should also note that the most frequent purpose for borrowing is “health-related”.

6 Savings: Without the awareness and complex legal requirements of banks most of the savings in SHGs. There was one recurring deposit account. Savings in SHGs were on the weekly basis. Many members were irregular in their savings. Even this was irregular as there is no regular income flow in the household. So whenever there was a little money available with the women either by selling the MFP, vegetables or bamboo, they preferred to save in the safe earthen container inside the house but away from their husbands’ eyes. From the data on financing of asset purchase and financing of significant events, it was evident that these savings are very sparingly used for outflows. Sale of assets and jewellery was not seen at all in the sample households. Savings are perceived to be a different compartment that was to be used sparingly. An overall look at the income, savings and borrowings data indicates that the level of indebtedness is not alarming (the figure). In almost all cases the overall borrowing was less than their annual income, and far less than the total worth of the assets they had. In this sense no respondent suffered from a negative net-worth. However, what seemed to be very prevalent is stashing money away in pots, as there were no alternatives available for savings. Formal sources were accessed only by a handful of people and they also seemed to have multiple accounts. This problem was faced both in the borrowing and the savings departments. Table 11 shows the savings of the poor in institutions

CONCLUSIONS

Mapping the financial flow of the poor requires careful investigation of the income and expenditure patterns and the most important is the involvement of the people themselves. This paper illustrates the results of a study conducted in one village of Kerala which was under the influence of natural calamities and farmers problems for last years and has experienced some rainfall this year. But that area resolve some of the important problems by way of government programes and individual cooperation , particularly pertaining to wage employment and helped them diversify their livelihood sources. Although there are

various studies conducted to identify the factors that drag people into the poverty trap, the major findings of this study are that the overall asset-savings-income profile of the poor in this village give a comfort while compared to the indebtedness. However, most of the assets and savings are illiquid, forcing the poor to borrow at high cost and service such loans. The study indicates the failure of institutions to penetrate the savings and loan market. Even if we assume that the “emergency” needs would be met by the local sources, the institutions (including microfinance mechanisms like SHGs) were unable to

make inroads into financing non-emergency planned needs such as asset purchase and house construction. There is a need for an appropriately designed savings product – a major attribute of the product must be safety. Liquidity and return does not seem to

be a concern as most savings is in a “pot” stashed away. It is important to note that significant borrowings also come from relatives thereby reinforcing the social bonding in the community that we studied. This is also evidenced in the way marriages and other social events are financed. The poor seem to be smoothening their interest costs by resorting to informal, zero cost borrowings for certain purposes. This has an important

indication for us. There has been a very strong fungibility argument for pricing loans uniformly, by MFIs. This is seen both in the Grameen style and SHG type of organisations. One of the arguments is that this takes care of adverse usage of credit (the oft-cited example is subsidy based production credit being used for social consumption). However, the pattern of borrowing and the use to which the poor have put the funds in our sample indicate that if we can ensure the end use, there is a case for differential

pricing of loans. It also proves that informal structures ensure that even in consumption, this could be limited by social systems – the example being the non-availability of finance from the social system for second and subsequent marriages. The study re-confirms the findings of earlier studies – the most killing expense is health related. This leads the poor into further indebtedness. The borrowings for health expenses form one of

the most significant chunks of borrowing. We also noticed that there was no significant difference between the upper end of the poor and the lower end in having access to formal institutions both for savings and loans and in either case the dealings with these institutions were limited. A combination of factors like information about income opportunities, accessible and cheap healthcare facilities, credit on affordable terms and awareness about the unnecessary expenses on social functions would help

them in managing their money judiciously. Although we could gather valuable information but still there are certain things missing and the study does not capture like

the relation between the cost of borrowing with and without collateral – particularly with moneylenders, long-term flows and whether these households have been better-off as compared to a decade ago and the effect of diversification of income streams in dealing with

difficult situations – particularly considering that the sample area was affected by severe droughts in the past three years. A significant gap was also found in the lack of data collected on current expenditure.

Profile Of Wayanad District

District Wayanad

Area (in sq.km.) 2,131

Population 7,80,619

Males 3,91,273

Females 3,89,346

Sex ratio : Females/1000 995

Density of Population 366

Per Capita Income (in Rs) 34,123

Literacy rate 85.25%; Male 89.77%; Female 80.72%

Coastal line in km. Nil

Water bodied area in ha. 936

Forest area in ha. 78787

Assembly Constituencies 1. Kalpatta

2. North Wayanad

3. Sulthan Batheri

Taluks Head Quarters No. of Villages

Vaithiri Vaithiri 18

Sulthan Batheri Sulthan Batheri 15

Mananthavadi Mananthavadi 16

Live stock Population (2000 Census)

Cattle Buffaloes Goats Sheep Pigs

106393 5847 38188 110 3254

Monthly rainfall (m.m)

Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

Rainfall 7.4 9.1 21.5 96.3 186.3 694.1 1163.6 639.6 258.7 206.6 101.4 26.7

Profile of Noolpuzha Village

Geographical Area (Hec) 24297

Forest Area (Hec) 19287

Cropped Area(Hec) 3330

Irrigated Area (Hec) 200

Total Number of House hold 4627

Population 23151

Male 11806

Female 11345

SC / ST 9861

Hospitals 9

High Schools 3

Post Offices 8

Banks 4

Village Offices 1

Telegraph Offices 1

SHG

General 296

ST 111

Sources: Panchayat Schedule

LIST OF TABLES

Table 2: Distribution of Age across the Sample

Year Age

1-15 85

16-30 68

31-45 34

45 years and above 29

Total 226

Table 3: Level of Education across the Sample

Level Of Education No

Illiterate 126

Literate 48

Primary education 52

Total 226

Table 4: Distribution of the Sample according to Employment Status

Status Employment (Nos)

Unemployed 62

Student 16

Housewife 29

Agriculture 60

Non-farm enterprise (seasonal) 33

Non-farm enterprise (regular) 4

Service 8

Any other 14

Total 226

Table 5: Income Details for Different Occupations

Source of Income

Average Income Per

Person Employed

per Annum (Rs) Capita Income

of Households

per Annum (Rs)

Agriculture 1,329 752

Agricultural wage labour 10,800 2,700

Non-agri enterprises (seasonal) 10,621 2,392

Collecting MFP/grass

(primary employment) 950 480

Overall Income from non-agri sources – 519

Per capita income from all sources 6843

Table 6: Income Sources: Agriculture and Other

Per Capita

Sources From Agriculture

From Other

Total Income

Income of HHs (No of HHs) (No of HHs) (No of HHs)

0-2000 6 33 5

2000-4000 25 12 19

More than 4000 19 5 26

Table 7: Asset Details

Asset List

Number

Approximate Value

of the Asset ( Rs)

Physical assets

Clock 9 940

Scooter 01 7000

Cycle 01 2000

Watch 10 2210

Radio 05 2300

Cot 24 5100

Chairs 01 50

Elec connections

(number of bulb points) 15 3500

Utensils (approx value) 17900

Farm implements 52 11500

Pump 01 8000

Jewellery (silver) (approx value) 213600

Jewellery (gold) (approx value) 1500

-

Livestock

Cows 3733700

Bullocks 5566000

Goat/sheep 81 35650

Poultry 41 6720

Land (area in acres)

Own irrigated land 0.375 22000

Own rain-fed land 20.5 81000

Own non-cultivable land 11.7 232000

Leased rain-fed land 1.875 66000

Leased non-cultivable land 0.375 10000

Dwelling

Small 7

Medium 20

Large 01

Table 8: Borrowing Details from Different Sources

Details of the Monetary

Transactions Break-up of the

Client Base

Sources Loan

No Of

Accounts Ammount

(Rs) Ave Loan

Size (Rs) Group I

19 Hhs Group Ii

15 Hhs

Commercial banks

post office 05

(7.8) 49,000

(17.33) 9,800

02

03

Moneylenders

42

( 65.62) 134,100

(47.45) 3,193

18

24

SHG

04

(6.25) 2,700

(0.95) 675

00

04

Relatives

12

(18.75) 91,800

(32.48) 7,650

06

06

Any other

0 1

(1.56) 5,000

(1.79 ) 5,000

00

01

Total 64 2,82,600 4,415

38

26

.

* Group I = Per capita income less than Rs 4,000. Group II = Per capita

income more than Rs 4,000

Table 10: Significant Events and How They Were Financed

Event Detail Borrowings

No of Events

in the Past Years(Rs)

Ave Amt

savings

Spent

(Rs)

Used

(Rs)

Marriage of children

19

13,432

1,895

11,537

Health problems of family members 31 1,955

1,281 674

Construction of house 10 7,570 800 5,770

Purchase of agricultural land 07 3,457 428 2 428

Funeral expense 04 200 – 1,200

Other 18 989 906 3,083

.

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(ed.), Perspectives on Tribal Development, Bharath Book Centre, Lucknow, 1998.

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2002.

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Regional Development’, New Delhi, 1983.

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India Pub. Delhi, 1987.

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Rehabilitation’, Inter-India Publications, Delhi, 1999.

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Educate and Entertain Toddlers With Fun Developmental Games and Educational Toys

Educational toys and developmental games are excellent for strengthening the parent/child relationships. These games and toys are great source of fun and are wonderful way to enhance your toddler’s learning. In addition, manipulative games enhance dexterity and eye-hand coordination and provide numerous learning opportunities. In this brief article, we’ll discuss the benefits of toddler games, some popular developmental games, and how you can make the most of your toddler’s playing time.

First, you should keep in mind that educational games and toys include board games, puzzles, dominoes and memory games. Here are some popular options: board games: board games with, young children are capable of, their colors, shapes and sounds, and move documents to learn the skills to improve their skills. Puzzles: The puzzles that toddlers are able to solve problems. Some great examples are made of wood and jigsaw puzzles. You can even purchase floor puzzles and affects the entire family. Creative Mind Games: The Creative Mind Games, encouraging toddlers to learn shapes, colors, and sounds with the use of songs and other activities.

Secondly, the choice of your baby, use varieties, choose age-appropriate toys and games development in the game. For example, for 6 months did not like the same as the 12 and 24 months old toys. You see, 6-month-old baby is only found in the world, often 12-24 months, while their children enjoy the mouth of the things that encourage and discovery. Choose the best school-age children's toys for the unique needs of various attempts to see what kind of interest of most. You will soon find that your child is not only to enjoy themselves, but to learn and develop skills, as well.

Third, your time, not arranged in one too many activities. Children are notorious for failure to focus on a long time, and often easily bored. Therefore, it is important that you stay in a brief team meeting, not imposed upon his toys. On the contrary, the use of the development of young children of different educational games and a variety of toys, and switch gears, or transferred to something else, he seems to feel tired. This will encourage him to have fun, enjoy this moment, not boring.

Fourth, have a wonderful time and enjoy the moment. Although it is tempting to do so, you don’t have to have structured play time all time and you don’t have to see the educational value in everything you do. After all, toddlers learn so much by just doing and being with you. So, have fun and don’t rush the educational process. It will happen!

In conclusion, developmental games and relax with your children, improve their skills and to spend quality time with children improve their skills and dexterity is a great way. So, whether the relationship puzzle games, memory, dominoes, card games to play, or snap, it's fun for your children!

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