24th Oct 2021
Online Event at Zoom
A webinar with Odisha Dialogues -Pandemic and its impact on tribal livelihood, with special focus on women was held online on 24th October, 2021. It has been seen that from a slump in sale of forest produce to stigmatisation of services provided by their members, from lack of government support to increased violence and dispossession, tribal communities have been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic. The aim of the webinar was to spotlight their continuing hardship, assess the impact and suggest a way forward. The panellists comprised grassroots activists, academic and advocacy experts and policy makers and included:
• Dayamani Barla from Jharkhand, a journalist, activist and a tea shop owner who works very closely with the tribals from Jharkhand.
• Rajeev Sagariya- Very strong on-ground connections with the Tribals of Odisha
• Vinod Verma- Journalist, activist and currently an advisor to CM of Chattisgarh on tribal issues of Chattisgarh.
• Avijit Mohanty – writes on tribal issues and works with UNDP, Odisha.
• Nupur Pattanaik- a university scholar and teacher at Central Odisha University, Koraput.
• Minaketan Behera, Associate Professor of Economics, JNU, New Delhi
Dr Manoj Dash, Director at Odisha Dialogues, welcomed the speakers and participants and introduced the topic of the webinar. Dr. A.L. Sharada, Director of Population First, outlined the context for the discussion. Odisha Dialogues Founder Director Rajesh Mahapatra moderated the discussion. Total registrations received were 97 while total views on the livestream reached 159.
Here is a summary of the deliberations:
• The pandemic induced lockdowns and movement restrictions imposed by the government to contain the spread of coronavirus coincided with the harvesting and selling period of minor forest produce (MFP) such as mahua, amla, tamarind etc.
• “It was a terrible blow to the livelihood for thousands of Adivasis. MFP provides a major source of income to Adivasi people especially during January to June,” said Dayamani Barla, a Jharkhand based award-winning journalist and tribal rights activist.
• “Local weekly markets were disrupted which are mostly controlled by the tribal women,” said Dr Manoj Dash, founding member of Odisha Dialogues. The impact of Covid-19 is so severe that it outweighed the government’s recovery programmes and schemes.
• Rajib Sagaria noted that “tribal communities always take time to get adjusted to emerging dynamics of any situation.” According to him, the lockdown of Covid-19 delivered a deadly blow to tribals working in informal sectors. They suffered the double blow of not finding adequate means of sustenance from schemes like MGNREGA and inability to sell the minor forest produce because of closure of markets and disrupted supply chain. While the entire tribal region felt the pressure, women and children were the worst sufferers.
• “The impact is severe among tribal women,” noted Abhijit Mohanty. “Tribal women are the backbone of their household’s food and nutritional securities. And the pandemic crisis has substantially weakened their income sources”.
• Nupur Pattnaik, Assistant Professor of Sociology at the Koraput Central University, said a study conducted in Koraput district’s Simliguda block to assess the impact of the pandemic on tribal women vendors showed “it had become very difficult for tribal women to adapt with the new Covid-19 normal.” They struggled to adopt Covid-19 responsible behaviour like maintaining social distancing and wearing a facemask. When the pandemic was at its peak in the second phase, “people were even sceptical about purchasing vegetables and other produce from tribal women. People had the notion that if they buy food from them, they will get infected with coronavirus.” All these challenges have forced tribal women to sell their harvested MFPs and agricultural produce at a meagre price during lockdown.
• Dr. A.L. Sharada noted that Covid-19 has unevenly affected different segments of society. Not just the tribal women, but their children also suffered disproportionately, according to data released by UNICEF. “Tribal children lost one major source of meal under the mid-day meal programme as schools were closed,” she said.
• “Reverse migration has created a panic in the tribal area,” said Minaketan Behera. The lockdown impacted around 40 million inter-state tribal migrant workers nationally. Over 90 percent of migrant workers who work in the unorganised sector were hit hard by the Covid-19 induced economic crisis. There has been a reduction of up to 40-50 percent in the incomes of tribal people, according to a study conducted by Behera in Odisha’s tribal districts. Apart from the economic impact, the mental trauma caused by the pandemic among the marginalised communities cannot be overemphasised, he added.
• When it comes to assessing the impact of Covid-19 among the particularly vulnerable tribal groups (PVTGs), Behera claimed that the lack of baseline data of PVTGs should be one of the major concerns for government and policy experts. The socio-economic situation of PVTGs in Odisha is not promising.
• The pandemic has heightened the necessity of revisiting the chronic issues that have been jeopardising the tribal community's food and nutritional security. People's diets have changed over the years and farmers now grow commercial crops. Mono-cropping is widespread instead of the community’s traditional mixed-cropping and inter-cropping.
• “These challenges are responsible for limiting dietary diversity and self-sufficiency of tribal people,” underlined Mohanty. The situation of pregnant women and mothers is worse as a direct impact of the pandemic and their diet now consists mainly of rice, boiled potatoes, chilli and a pinch of pickle and salt.
• “Amidst the pandemic, there are some tribal women who are showing the way forward for adaptation and mitigation,” highlighted Mohanty. For instance, in Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district, when tribal families lost jobs and access to the forests during the pandemic and the lockdown, many of them faced hunger and poverty. Since May 2020, over 42,000 tribal women farmers in the district have been cultivating organic nutrition gardens in their household’s front and backyards. This is strengthening their food and income security.
• Tribal youth in Rayagada and Kandhamal districts have produced audio documentaries to improve consumption of local dietary diversity. This initiative has facilitated audio documentation of a range of edible tubers, roots and insects, their local names, scientific names, a brief description, seasonality, traditional acceptance and nutritional values.
• More than a third of Chhattisgarh’s population is tribal. In the first phase of the pandemic, tribals living in the remote areas of the state were less affected in terms of infections and access to basic health care services. The second phase, however, was devastating particularly for marginalised communities like tribals, said Vinod Verma, Advisor to the Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh. Apart from income losses, the tribals in Chhattisgarh had also faced health issues. Tribal areas of the state which are adjacent to the border of Odisha were also hit hard by the pandemic. The Government of Chhattisgarh took immediate steps to mitigate the effects of the pandemic, Verma said. For example, earlier tribals used to sell mahua at Rs.17 per kg. The Chhattisgarh government decided to increase the minimum support price (MSP) of mahua to Rs.30 per kg. Now, tribals are able to sell their harvested mahua at Rs.40-42 per kg.
Recommendations from the panel
• Providing income generation opportunities in tribal areas is the need of the hour. This will reduce distress migration and strengthen resilience amongst the communities.
• It is also important to support infrastructure facilities for the value addition of MFPs and train tribal youths and women on entrepreneurship and marketing.
• Uncultivated wild and traditional foods form a major source of food and nutritional security for the tribal people. Policies on climate change, conservation, food security and agriculture need to be integrated to recognise and preserve the importance of uncultivated and traditional food.
• There is an urgent need to document and develop an inventory of important edible plant species. Tribal farmers have an in-depth understanding of traditional local varieties and their manifold uses honed through generations of farming.
The link to view: https://bit.ly/3A5nBWH