Nutritional Issues in Juang Tribes of Odisha

In July 2016, 19 children from the Juang tribe were reported killed due to acute malnutrition.

Key Facts

• Juang tribe belongs to the Munda ethnic group and the people of this tribe are found in Keonjhar, Keonjhar, Dhenkanal Angul and Jaipur districts of Odisha. Their current estimated population is 10,000.
• They live atop Nagda hills and their main occupation is basket weaving.

Nutritional Issues in Juang Tribes

Inequitable distribution of food within households has led to nutritional issues among children. Odisha’s average family size being high has adverse impacts on the nutritional status of the family. As a result, the Junag tribe have very feeble health. Rice and salt are their staple food. They survive using ration rice and some maize grown near their homes. As the quantity of rice is not sufficient for the whole family, they depend upon the wild tuber collected from the forests. Further, proper awareness has not been spread among the tribals to get their children inoculated against life-threatening diseases.

The Juang tribal hamlets owing to their remoteness lack basic facilities like sanitation, drinking water facilities, electricity, primary health care centre, schools etc. They are used to living in one room huts with minimal clothing.

They have neither been allotted lands under the Forest Rights Act nor possess voter IDs and job cards under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.

Surprisingly, the Corporate Social responsibility (CSR) funds from nearby mining entities are not utilized for the welfare of the Juang tribes but are used to support state-run initiatives in the district headquarters and other towns. Surprisingly, PVTGs do not fall under the ambit of National Food Security Act. Despite Supreme Court ruling, many tribal families don’t have Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) cards. The SC mandated that all households belonging to six priority groups to be given AAY cards.

There is an issue of connectivity also. For Juangs in Nagada hills, the nearest hospital is the Tata Steel hospital which is 27 km away. The government run public health centre is 36 km away and the district hospital is at a distance of 110 km.

Deaths due to malnutrition goes unreported due to the ignorance among the tribals and irresponsible reporting of the health officials who usually do not record deaths due to malnutrition. Also, the tribals hurriedly bury the dead ones so it becomes difficult for the officials to know the exact reason for the children’s death.

Why Odisha needs to have special focus on tribals?

• Odisha has 62 tribes which is the highest in the country. As per the 2011 census data they form 85% of the total population.
• Out of 62, 13 tribes have been identified as Particularly vulnerable Tribal groups (PVTGs). The PVTGs have 500 habitations in the state most of them located in not easily accessible forested hills.
• Odisha’s infant mortality rate (IMR) is 51 deaths per 1,000 live births as compared to the national IMR of 40 deaths per 1,000 live births. Still worst is the IMR of scheduled tribe population of Odisha which is 78.7 deaths per 1,000 live births.

What has been done by the government to address this issue?

The state government has constituted a field level task force and a state level monitoring committee to address this issue. 50 officials have been posted on the rotational basis on the needy areas and a permanent anganwadi has been opened at the foothills of the Nagada hills. The anganwadi worker is tasked with supplying packets of nutritional chhatua to the villagers when they come down.

The government is also building roads to Nagada using funds from Integrated Action Plan. Additionally, the state government is also in the process of identifying inaccessible tribal hamlets across the state in order to provide food security to them.

Juang Development Agency (JDA)

A Juang Development Agency (JDA) was established in 1975 in Keonjhar district with an aim to bring Juangs into the mainstream of development. But the agency is operating only in 35 villages. Many other Juang dominated villages still remains outside the purview of the JDA.

What are the problems faced by the tribals in India?

India is a country where 60 percent of the area under forests is tribal area. 51 out of 58 districts which have forest cover greater than 67 percent are tribal. Also, 40 percent of people being displaced by dams are tribals.

• Literacy rate among the tribals is very low. It has been identified as a major impediment to the development of tribal people.
• Due to lack of banking facilities, tribal peoples are forced to depend on the money lenders for their needs. Their small land holdings coupled with less crop yield has made them chronically indebted to the money lenders.

• The point of autonomy in scheduled areas as laid in Schedule V or VI of the Constitution. There is a Tribal Advisory Council in Schedule V areas. The latter is a body which has both elected and community representative of the tribal communities was formed to advise the Governor on all matters of administration and governance. However, there has been an apparent lack of interest and delay in submission of reports by the Governors. It has been suggested that the formation of Governors’ Cells to come up in all Schedule V states which will assist the Governor.
• Although many schemes have been implemented but there is a dire need for infrastructure, dismal teaching and learning methods, lack of focus, the affect of armed conflict on teacher absenteeism and other school practices have taken a heavy toll of studies of the tribal children. Further, tribal land alienation and dispossession are at the centre of crisis faced by the tribal areas.
• The existing constitutional provisions and laws to protect the tribals are not optimally used to safeguard the welfare of tribals. In addition, basic system of laws governing tribal rights is extremely ambiguous.
• Land acquisition by the state, manipulation of the records and also wrong interpretation of law etc. has led to massive neglect of the tribals and their needs.

Instead of persuading the tribals to rehabilitate to the plains, the government should work to increase connectivity to tribal hamlets. The PVTGs must be brought under the ambit of various welfare programmes. Bringing development in the form of health, education and nutrition is the need of the hour.