ABSTRACT
It is an established fact that the Indian tribes suffered from recurrent food shortage with low socio-economic status. However, the problem is further complicated among those tribal groups, who live in fringe forest areas. In order to understand this habitat specific dilemma on food security, the present study aims to investigate the status of food security in household level and its association with some socio-economic parameters among the Rabha tribe living in fringe forest areas. The cross-section data of household food security status and socio-economic characteristics was collected through pre-tested structured schedules from 207 households from four forest villages located in Kalchini block of Alipurduar district in North Bengal, West Bengal by using cluster sampling. The results revealed that 34.30% of households were food insecure and food insecure households were significantly (p<0.01) lower per capita income, expenditure and food expenditure compared to their food secure counterparts. More of the food insecure households were living in Kaccha houses, did not possess any cultivable and homestead land, low standard of living index, had a small household size and insufficient paddy production. The occurrence of less agricultural production may be due to lack of irrigation throughout the year, wild animal attack, lack of bank credit and finally their unwillingness to cultivate. They adopt various options of consumption coping strategies like purchased food on credit (77.78%), gather wild food, hunt or harvest immature crops (25.60%), borrow food, or rely on help from friends or relatives (20.77%). Therefore, understanding the complex interaction between factors of food security is imperative to develop and implement effective strategies in micro level population like the present studied community.
