Sustenance of Food Security Through Natural Resources and Traditional Weekly Markets during COVID-19 Pandemic: A Study on the Tribal Villages of Karbi Anglong District of Assam

Abstract

Karbi Anglong district of Assam is a zone of diversified natural resources and multicultural tradition. The present article highlights their traditional weekly markets or Hats (which is locally termed as Hithi), organised and participated by the Karbi tribal people as well as their traditional number system and practices of barter system. Such markets are either conducted weekly or fortnightly. Primary data related to the present study has been collected through field works with the help of anthropological methods. The prime objective of the present study is to find out how indigenous knowledge, locally available natural resources and traditional economic organisations have collectively sustained the daily livelihood of the marginal areas, through the traditional markets as well as through the age-old barter system, under the acute threat of COVID-19 pandemic. It has been found that such traditional markets are the platform for the Karbi people of the rural areas, to channelise their local production and to generate a scope of earning for themselves under the lockdown phases of COVID-19 pandemic.