Food and Nutrition Security: An Exercise in Locating Ground-truth Among Tribals

By : Nitin Tagade , R. S. Deshpande

Page No: 214-227

Abstract
Food security has been a singular concern in India for the last century. Policies were made, strategies were formulated to overcome food and nutrition deficiency, but with a marginal dent. Macro data, however, paints a rosy picture of a food-sufficient India. But even six decades after Independence, we cannot say that India is fairly comfortable in all its regions with regard to food availability. The strategies implemented thus far focused on food production, distribution, employment generation and emphasizing fair prices. This paper is based on a field study to understand the issue of food insecurity/access in the tribal-dominated areas of Maharashtra, at micro level as against the comfortable situation shown by many. A comparison of food insecurity between the tribals and non-tribals reveals a higher incidence among the tribals as compared to nontribals, and hence the former group will have to be carried to the very distant goal with an extra push. Their dependence for nutrition on the forest products to which the access is denied through state control needs to be understood as a deliberate policy to keep them away from food of their liking. State should build the capabilities of the tribal communities to overcome food insecurity, particularly in distress situations with the help of their own initiatives.

Authors :
Nitin Tagade : Assistant Professor at Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune
R.S. Deshpande : Director and Advisor, Centre for Development Studies, PES University, and Professor, Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore