The problem
INDIA is uniquely placed on the world’s tribal map, being home to 104 million of the world’s estimated 370 tribal people. India is also called the melting pot for races and tribes with nearly 700 distinct tribes (ranging from a minuscule 44 Onges in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands to over seven million Gonds spread over many states of central India.) Together they constitute 8.6% of the country’s population – the largest proportion in any country globally. India’s tribals called adivasi (earliest dwellers), vanya jati (forest castes), van vasi (forest dwellers), janjati (folk communities), girijan (hill dwellers), adimjati (primitive castes) and constitutionally, Scheduled Tribes, are covered by protective and positive discrimination policies designed for their welfare and social and economic upliftment.
1Unfortunately, despite constitutional protection and earmarked budgets they continue to remain among the poorest and most nutritionally deprived social groups in the country. Poverty rates among India’s tribals are still where the general population was 20 years ago. The fact that every second tribal in rural India lives in food-insecure conditions – with caloric and protein consumption 25 to 53% below the recommended dietary allowance and consuming a diet with negligible amounts of milk and fruit – leads one to question the implementation of our manifold legislations and schemes for tribals. Though starvation deaths among tribal children are hardly uncommon, only a few catch the headlines. If one was to rate nations on the yardstick of chronic undernutrition among children – the starkest manifestation of deprivation – India would occupy centre stage, housing the highest proportion of chronically undernourished children globally (61 out of 165 million), with the prevalence being highest among tribal children (54%).
Field practitioners argue that land alienation, displacement and poor compensation and rehabilitation provisions are among the core reasons for the prevailing poverty among tribals, which results in household food insecurity and undernutrition in their children. Activists argue that physical destruction of forests, government monopoly over minor forest produce, and lack of regulation on access to corporates over resources and wealth that belong to the adivasis are critical factors contributing to their poverty and subsequent bondage and deprivation. It is undeniable that the tribals of central India have borne the brunt of displacement as their mineral rich habitats also happen to be among the best sites for hydroelectric projects. The failure of government to protect tribal rights to their land and resources despite legislation is a major contributor to increasing civil strife, as also deprivation.
However, the present discourse, both official and multilateral, prefers to foreground their lifestyle, food habits, traditional and cultural practices as key reasons for their chronic undernutrition, and on the forested, hilly and undulating terrains for poor coverage of public services. Yet, though distance is a factor, the same geographically isolated tribal domains are also overexploited for their natural resources, thereby weakening the argument of geographical isolation as a rationale for poor access and coverage of services in tribal areas. It is true that government servants are reluctant to work in such areas and far too often absent themselves from their official duties, claiming danger from ongoing civil strife. Nevertheless, extremist violence affects only about one third of tribal blocks in central India. So why is the remaining two-thirds still underdeveloped and deprived?
Undernutrition in children is influenced not only by food and child feeding practices in the first two years after birth but also by maternal nutrition before and during pregnancy, narrow inter-pregnancy intervals, gender inequity, household poverty, and other such issues. This makes it clear that any meaningful solution must follow a holistic approach addressing issues related to nutrition, health, family planning, water and sanitation, poverty alleviation and women empowerment simultaneously, and the concerned ministries should join hands to plan and implement effective inter-sectoral interventions and not leave the responsibility to only one or two ministries. The Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA) being the nodal ministry for tribals can convene various ministries for policy, planning and programme coordination for tribals to ensure that basic nutrition, health and sanitation and development reaches them. However, undernutrition is far too often considered to be synonymous with hunger and starvation, a clear failure to understand the complex relationship between calorific intake and nutritional status. Little surprise that the solution is sought in food doles.
Although the current scenario appears to be grim, there are worthwhile examples for others to adapt and replicate. Additionally, Unicef’s experience in bringing nutrition counselling, services and support closer to adivasi children and their mothers, shows that partnerships with non-government organizations can improve outreach in inaccessible pockets. Equally, that formal engagement with adivasi communities as partners of change is imperative. Investing in adivasi leadership and empowerment, while promoting strategies to improve nutrition, is critical. Otherwise, given their (tribals) inherent shyness, a result both of unfamiliarity and negative experience with the outside world, and lack of voice, reflective of poor organization, the adivasi demand for their entitlement(s) would never reach a critical mass to influence the nature of response.
This issue of Seminar discusses the complex causes behind nutrition deprivation of tribals, brings to the forefront broader issues of governance, which cannot be decoupled from trickle down nutrition schemes, and presents solutions of what works and why in an effort to forge multi-sectoral commitments for improving the food and nutrition security of our tribal children – the youngest, poorest and most vulnerable.
VANI SETHI
