Food and Nutrition Insecurity Status Among Tribal Communities: A Case Study of Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group of Jhargram, West Bengal, India

Abstract

Food and nutrition insecurity is a serious issue among the low and lower-middle-income countries in the world, especially among the tribal people who live in a forest-based society. Jhargram District is a part of Jangal Mahal (forest based) of West Bengal, India, which has been a socially and economically backward region, and it is a home of indigenous people. The overall incline of the entire area stretches from the northwest to the southeast. The Jhargram region has been grappling with persistent water scarcity for many years, which has hindered its socioeconomic progress. The presence of hard-rocky crystalline rocks is the primary reason for the absence of a sucxitable aquifer on the northwest side of the district. These geological characteristics pose difficulties for agricultural activities. The study area Binpur-II Block of Jhargram District, geographically, is a rolling topography of the Chhotonagpur Plateau and 13,694 ha area covered by forest against a total geographical area of 57,574 ha. The block has a 40% tribal population, and they are dependent on the forest for their livelihood because the lack of sufficient water and bad geological character has a detrimental effect on agriculture, industry, public health, and education, leading to migration and environmental consequences. Due to insufficient agricultural activities and bad socioeconomic conditions, most of the tribal people suffer from food and nutrition insecurity, especially the children, married women, and old age people. Hence, the prime objective of the study is to assess food and nutritional insecurity among the Particular Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG) of this region. To study the food and nutrition insecurity, we select 206 households and 855 villagers of different age groups through stratified random sampling. To the application of the Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) measure, the present study shows that among all the tribal communities, 85.92% of tribal households have fallen into the Food Insecure group; among them, 33.98% are households that are mildly food insecure (category II), 24.27% are households that are moderately food insecure (category III), and 27.67% are households that are severely food insecure (category IV). The nutritional status has been analyzed through internationally accepted BMI guidelines (WHO, 1995). A total of 48.19% of villagers have been undernourished whose body mass index (BMI) is below 18.5. The nutrition study shows that 43.48% of males and 49.52% of females are undernourished, and between the ages of 0 and 18 years, male people are more undernourished (24.40%) than female people (31.35%). It has been shown from the sample study that the female working-age group is more undernourished (21.77%) than male working group people (10.07%). The study reveals that tribal children and women are the most malnourished of the entire population, which threatens their ability to contribute to the socio-economic development of these tribes.