Profiling of Livelihood Assets of Rural Households in gumla District of Jharkhand

Abstract

"This paper investigates the livelihood asset profile of the rural poor families of Gumla district of Jharkhand. This study was conducted in two villages of Gumla district, viz Hutar from Albert Ekka block and Bartoli from Dumri block, which was selected using simple random sampling. Complete enumeration (95 households) was done through a well-structured questionnaire in ODK platform. The study primarily identified the profile of livelihood assets owned by the rural households of Gumla district based on the sustainable livelihood framework of DFID. The study tried to explain the profile of various livelihood assets on sustainability, namely human, social, financial, physical, and natural capital. The study revealed that 95.79 per cent of the people belonged to the below poverty line. In this study, we also found that 88 per cent of the households from both villages had not availed any type of skill development training facilities, and almost 87 per cent of the households did not have access to the formal credit facility due to lack of knowledge about the formal financial system. Whereas, in both villages, 70 per cent of women were attached to different social institutions, especially Self-help Groups, and availed loans for various economic activities like the establishment of grocery shops, and enhancement of physical assets etc. to support their livelihood. Despite having abundant access to natural resources like forests and rivers, lack of human assets exceptionally skilled labour and unavailability of financial support were creating hindrances in the livelihood strategy formation at the village level. Hence, it is recommended that rural households should focus on the improvement of their human and financial assets to increase sustainability."