ABSTRACT
This chapter shows how the picture of hunger looks like from the perspective of the poor people from the villages of one of the districts, Bolangir. There are various estimates of the number of people living below the poverty line in Bolangir. According to Drought Mitigation Cell of Zila Swechchasevi Sangh, a local NGO, nearly 92 per cent of all the rural families in Bolangir live lives of penury, being below the poverty line. The general perception is that poverty is closely related to short falls in household food consumption. Food availability, accessibility and consumption are important aspects of food security at the household level in the rural areas of the district. The chapter looks at the kind of food that Chikili villagers consume, they have two sources of food: one, food purchased from the open market and two, food gathered and collected from forests and common property resources.
