Food Security Of Tribal Jhumias Of Tripura

Food Security of Tribal Jhumias of Tripura: The Need for Sensitive Planning AMITABHA SINHA TRIPURA UNIVERSITY

& Dr. Kiran Shankar Chakraborty IGNOU TRIPURA

Food Security can be defined in various ways which are as follows:

1. "Access by all people at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life." (World Bank). 2. "All people at all times have both physical and economic access to the basic food they need." (FAO Committee on World Food Security). 3. "Access by all people at all times to sufficient food and nutrition for a healthy and productive life." (The Agricultural Trade Development and Assistance Act of 1990 {P.L.480}). 4. "When all people at all times have access to sufficient food to meet their dietary needs for a productive and healthy life." (USAID Bureau for Africa, 1986). 5. ‘Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy lifestyle.’

THE CONCEPTUAL FRAME:



The conceptual frame used in this study follows closely the conceptual frame work of Amartya Sen (Poverty and Famines, 1981, OUP). Sen distinguishes between three aspects of food security in general. One is the endowment set. The second is the E- mapping. The third is the entitlement set. These three aspects of food security or the lack of it need to be clearly understood . The endowment set of a household consist of the resources available can be broadly divided into three categories. One is the human health, education, skills etc. of the members of the household The second element of the endowment set is the physical resources available to the households. The physical resources are ownership and control of cultivable land, ploughs and power tillers, irrigation facilities and so on. The third element of the endowment set consists of financial assets like bank deposits, shares and bonds and so on. The concept of E-mapping refers to the process through which endowment can be translated into entitlements. Taking the concrete case of entitlement to food of Jhumias of Tripura, E-mapping consists of production of food by the household itself, purchase of the food from the market, purchase of food from the public distribution system and collection of the food from the natural resources base like forests.

Jhum Cultivation Practices 

Jhum cultivation is done on the slopes of the hills inside the forests with all family members participation in the operations. The area cultivated depends of the number of family members available. Major of activities like cutting of jungles, burning, sowing, weeding and harvesting of paddy are done communally on a labour exchange basis. Jhum operations include site selection, cutting jungles, burning, cleaning of debris, sowing, weeding, watching/guarding, harvesting, threshing and fallowing. Many of these stages are interconnected with certain religious ceremonies and rituals depending on the tribes. The most common rituals are the religious ceremonies and worship before sowing of seeds and festivals observed after harvesting .

Table-1: COMMUNITY WISE TRIBAL POPULATION OF TRIPURA Sl No.

Name of the Tribes

Census Year 1961

1971

1981

1991

2001

1

Tripuri

189799 (52.71)

250545 (55.61)

330872 (56.66)

461531

543848

2

Reang

56597 (15.72)

64722 (14.36)

84004 (14.39)

111606

165103

3

Jamatia

24359 (6.76)

34192 (7.59)

44501 (7.62)

60824

74949

4

Chakma

22386 (6.17)

28662 (6.36)

34797 (5.96)

96096

64293

5

Halam

16298 (4.53)

19076 (4.23)

28970 (4.96)

36499

47245

6

Noatia

16010 (4.45)

10297 (2.28)

7182 (1.2318)

4158

6655

7

Mog

10524 (2.92)

13237 (2.94)

230 (3.12)

31612

30385

8

Kuki

5531 (1.54)

7775 (1.72)

5502 (0.94)

10628

11674

9

Garo

5484 (1.52)

5559 (1.23)

7298 (1.25)

9360

11180

10

Munda

4409 (1.22)

5347 (1.19)

7993 (1.37)

11547

12416

11

Orang

2875 (0.80)

3428 (0.76)

5217 (0.89)

6751

6223

12

Other Tribes

5798 (1.61)

7668 (1.70)

9354 (1.60)

11579

19455

13

All Tribes

360070 (100.00)

450544 (100.00)

583920 (100.00)

853345 (100.00)

993426 (100.00)

Table-2: Tribal groups and family members dependent on Jhum Tribe

Tripuri Reang Noatia Chakma Halam Jamatia Mog Garo Lushai Kuki Munda Uchoi Orang Bhil Khasi Santal Lepcha Chaimal Bhutia Total

No of famili es wholly depen dent

No of famili es partial ly depen dent

Total numb er of jhumi a famili es

5400 10321 15721 6356 7445 13801 3681 6416 10097 1849 3126 4975 1752 2169 3921 933 2016 2949 969 892 1861 118 406 524 392 92 484 166 157 323 13 162 175 00 94 94 26 26 52 04 26 30 08 22 30 09 02 11 01 0 01 Source: Forest Department, Government of Tripura. 21677

33372

54984

Total jhumia population

80747 73891 50160 27837 20871 16298 9527 2661 2624 1896 881 426 279 129 117 42 4 288390

Table -4: Numbers of jhum dependent households in Tripura. Year

Source of the Estimate

No of Households practicing jhum

1968

J.B Ganguly

25,000

1978

Benchmark Survey 1978

46,854

259,000

1987

Benchmark Survey1987

55,049

288,000

Dept. of Agriculture on Basis Of 2001 Census

60612

297,000

2001

No of peopl e Dependent on jhum

Table-3: List of various tribal groups practicing jhum in North and Dhalai District. Sl No.

Name of Tribe

North District

Dhalai District

Total

1

Halam

480

691

1,171

2

Tripuri

1,120

3,616

4,736

3

Reang

3,991

2510

6,501

4

Kuki

170

60

230

5

Chakma

950

1,540

2,490

6

Bhil

3

00

3

7

Lushai

236

01

237

8

Noatia (Tripura)

59

1,071

1,130

9

Mog

3

148

151

10

Orang

25

00

25

11

Munda

12

07

19

12

Lepcha

1

00

01

13

Garo

16

131

147

14

Khasia

13

00

13

15

Santhal

00

01

1

16

Jamatia

00

41

41

Total

7,079

9,784

16,896

Source: Forest Department, Government of Tripura

Table-5: Extent of areas affected by shifting cultivation in Dhalai and North Districts

Districts

Geographical area (ha)

Forest area (ha)

Jhum in 2004-05

Area affected by jhum

Area % of S fores o t w area n (ha)

Total % of area forest affec area t affecte e d d (ha)

Dhalai

232,280

192,728

5,00 8

2.60

32,4 0 0

16.81

North

210,805

120,459

5,27 2

4.37

33,2 4 2

27.60

Total

443,085

313,187

10,2

3.28

65,6 4 2

44.41

Source: Forest Department, Government of Tripura 8

0

Table-6: Calendar for Jhuming Activities G

Dec

Nov

Oct

Sep

Aug

Jul

Jun

May

Apr

Mar

Feb

Jan

Type of Work

Est’d labour input per ha

Selection of land, rituals, Clearing

men

20 days

Cutting of Bamboo

men

40 days

Making of fire line and burning

men

20 days

Land preparation and sowing

both

10 days

Weeding- 3 rounds

both

42 days

Bird scaring

both

30 days

Harvest cucumber

both

5 days

Harvest rice

both

20 days

Harvest Chillies

both

5 days

Harvest various minor crops

both

20 days

Harvest tapioca

both

10 days

Table-7: Contribution of Different Sectors to Non-Tax Revenue 1999-2004. Crore rupees

1999-00

2000-01

2001-02

2002-03

2003-04

Mean%

Power

33.93

35.35

46.2

59.68

121.78

55.5%

Forestry & Wildlife

2.44

7.6

4.53

4.09

14.7

6.2%

Education, Sports, Art &Culture

0.26

0.71

4.35

1.1

1.28

1.4%

Crop husbandry

1.21

1.43

1.46

0.84

1.08

1.1%

Other administrative services

2.67

1.04

1.02

1.16

1.27

1.3%

Water supply & sanitation

5.08

1.21

6.06

0.88

1.95

2.8%

Police

4.29

2.32

4.19

2.99

5.13

3.5%

Interest receipts

11.62

18.49

3.58

5.83

3.67

8.1%

Stationary & printing

1.75

1.42

1.18

0.69

0.99

1.1%

Animal husbandry

0.43

0.6

0.92

0.75

0.93

0.7%

Industries

4.09

5.51

6.27

6.04

5.61

5.1%

Public works

0.64

0.94

1.31

1.41

2.11

1.2%

Village and small industries

0.17

0.5

0.33

0.09

0.12

0.2%

Fisheries

0.33

0.45

0.33

0.43

0.53

0.4%

Other rural development

1.55

0.23

0.13

0.12

0.22

0.4%

Others

5.73

16.71

15.78

12.63

6.41

10.7%

Total

76.19

94.51

97.64

98.73

167.78

Thank you