Primary Stakeholders
ADATS' beneficiaries are 1,257 village level Coolie Sangha Units (CSUs) which are membership based organisations of 55,127 small and poor peasant families — agricultural labourers, migrant workers, self-employed artisans, and small farmers who do not themselves employ wage labour.
Except when responding to rare emergencies, ADATS does not work with the individual poor, within the conventional social work or charitable mode, in any patronising manner.
Since the Coolie Sangha is a membership driven organisation with a strict internal structure and discipline, membership figures tend to fluctuate. Not all the families/villages are active at all times. As on 10 August 2025, 9,958 families are active Members in 446 functioning Coolie Sangha Units.
As on 10 August 2025:
| Villages | Active Members | Inactive Members | Non CSU Families | Total | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Functioning CSUs | 446 | 9,958 | 18% | 14,948 | 27% | 4,349 | 8% | 29,255 |
| Dropped CSUs | 465 | 16,525 | 33% | 2,519 | 5% | 19,044 | ||
| Non CSU Villages | 346 | 6,769 | 16% | 6,769 | ||||
| 1,257 | 9,958 | 31,473 | 13,637 | 55,068 | ||||
Though only 7% of the households are women headed, without any adult males in their families, 43% of the membership stands in the names of wives, mothers and daughters. This is one of many indicators of women's position within families; their representing respective families within the Coolie Sangha. In part, it could also be tokenism.
Even worse, it could indicate a waning of relevance. Perhaps many men feel that the Coolie Sangha is not all that important a factor in their lives and they couldn't bother participating.
| Demographics | Active Members | |
|---|---|---|
| Male Headed Households | 9,225 | 93% |
| Women Headed Households | 733 | 7% |
| CSU Membership in Men's names | 5,713 | 57% |
| CSU Membership in Women's names | 4,245 | 43% |
| Pre-school (< 6 yrs) | 70 | 0% |
| School Age (6 to 17 yrs) | 12,193 | 16% |
| Youth (18 to 25 yrs) | 9,819 | 13% |
| 26 to 40 yrs | 21,254 | 28% |
| 41 to 65 yrs | 24,057 | 32% |
| Senior Citizens (> 65 yrs) | 7,990 | 11% |
In spite of about half the membership being SC and ST, the Coolie Sangha is a broad unification across caste and community as can be seen by a uniform ethnic cover across different categories
| Category | Active Members | Pop & Ethnic Cover | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SC | 3,307 | 7% | 20,304 | 30% |
| ST | 1,473 | 7% | 20,304 | 14% |
| BCM-A | 1,759 | 6% | 30,404 | 21% |
| BCM-B | 3,281 | 7% | 47,631 | 32% |
| General | 138 | 3% | 3,944 | 3% |
| Total | 9,958 | 30% | 1,22,587 | 20% |
The geographic spread of the Coolie Sangha is across 5 Taluks (Blocks) of Chickballapur district in Karnataka
| Taluk | Functioning CSUs | Active Members | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bagepalli | 141 | 3,444 | 9% |
| Chickballapur | 70 | 1,534 | 5% |
| Chintamani | 106 | 2,449 | 6% |
| Siddalaghatta | 85 | 1,665 | 8% |
| Gudibanda | 44 | 866 | 8% |
| Total | 446 | 9,958 | 36% |