Hunger In Jharkhand: Dimensions Of Poverty And Food Security In Palamu District

Abstract

The realities of starvation and hunger in South Asia are only partially addressed by larger discourses on food security. At the local level, many Indians continue to experience hunger, semi-starvation and malnutrition. While the age of mass starvation seems over, starvation deaths are reported from time to time, and hunger remains a lurking threat. This ethnographic study analyses patterns of poverty and food (in)security among tribal and other social groups in seven villages of the Manatu block in Palamu district of Jharkhand. The empirical findings present the main factors influencing the dynamics of household food (in)security and examine, through some case studies, how poor rural/tribal communities cope with threats of starvation and hunger. The article also critically analyses the implementation of social policies in addressing food security in Jharkhand and finds that more needs to be done to assist the most vulnerable individuals, including many women, to escape the precarities of hunger.