Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

This study aims to undertake the Participatory Livelihood Vulnerability Assessment (PLVA) of forest dwellers in the Jharkhand and Odisha states of eastern Indian region. The study covers 15 tribes that included 8 Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) and 7 other tribes from eight districts of Jharkhand and Odisha. The authors combined both participatory and survey-based approaches and used the simple indexing method for PLVA. They observed that landless families were among the most vulnerable. The forest dwellers have poor access to education and health. Both minor forest produce and social-welfare measures are important safety nets for the forest dwellers. There is, however, better access to banking, pukka houses, toilets and so on. Furthermore, attention is required to strengthen livelihood opportunities for the forest dwelling communities.

Keywords

Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG)Participatory Livelihood Vulnerability Assessment (PLVA)Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI)Human Development Index (HDI)Indexing

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Alkire

Oldiges

Kanagaratnam

(2018) Multidimensional poverty reduction in India 2005/6–2015/16: still a long way to go but the poorest are catching up. OPHI research in Progress 54a. Oxford: University of Oxford.

Bakshi

Chawla

Shah

(2015) Regional disparities in India: a moving frontier. Economic and Political Weekly 50(1): 44–52.

Barik

(2020) Odisha reverses historical injustices by recognising all PVTGs. The Hindu, 4 June. Available at: https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/odisha-reverses-historical-injustices-by-recognising-all-pvtgs/article31749106.ece

Bose

(2011) Forest tenure reform: exclusion of tribal women’s rights in semi-arid Rajasthan, India. The International Forestry Review 13(2): 220–232.

Census of India (2011) Government of India. Available at: https://censusindia.gov.in/census.website/data/HH2011

Chilongo

(2014) Livelihood strategies and forest reliance in Malawi. Forest Trees and Livelihoods 23(3): 188–210.

Choudhury

(2015) Economic activities of Pauri Bhuiya. In: Ota

Mohanty

(eds) Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) of Odisha, vol. 1. Bhubaneswar, India: SCSTRTI, pp.722–730.

Dasgupta

Badola

(2020) Indicator-based assessment of resilience and vulnerability in the Indian Himalayan Region: a case study on socio-economy under different scenarios. Sustainability 12: 6938.

Dash

(2006) Shifting cultivation among the tribes of Odisha, Orissa Review, July 2006, pp.76–84. Available at: odisha.gov.in (accessed 1 October 2021).

10.

Dungdung

Pattanaik

(2020) Tribal development disparities in Odisha: an empirical analysis. South Asia Research 40(1): 94–110.

11.

FAO (1998) People and forests, Asia-Pacific Forestry towards 2010, report of the Asia-Pacific Forestry Sector Outlook Study. Available at: http://www.fao.org/3/w9615e/w9615e0b.htm (accessed 20 September 2021).

12.

Ford

Smit

(2004) A framework for assessing the vulnerability of communities in the Canadian Arctic to risks associated with climate change. Arctic 57(4): 389–400.

13.

Government of Jharkhand Forest Department (n.d.). Available at: http://forest.jharkhand.gov.in/Administration/forest_area.aspx

14.

Hahn

Riederer

Foster

, et al. (2009) The Livelihood Vulnerability Index: a pragmatic approach to assessing risks from climate variability and change – a case study in Mozambique. Global Environmental Change 19(1): 74–78.

15.

Hasnain

(1991) Tribal India Today. New Delhi, India: Harnam Publication, pp.26–27.

16.

Hossen

MdB

(2016) Livelihood vulnerability assessment and local adaptations against climate change in South West Coastal Belt of Bangladesh. Available at: https://dspace.kuet.ac.bd/bitstream/handle/20.500.12228/95/Full%20Thesis.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y (accessed 13 May 2021).

17.

Huong

NTL

Yao

Fahad

(2018) Assessing household livelihood vulnerability to climate change: The case of Northwest Vietnam. Human and Ecological Risk Assessment: An International Journal 25: 1157–1175

18.

IGNFA (n.d.) Policy Issues in NTFP management. Available at: https://www.ignfa.gov.in/document/biodiversity-cell-ntfp-related-issues10.pdf

19.

ILO (2021) Forestry, wood, pulp and paper sector. Available at: https://www.ilo.org/global/industries-and-sectors/forestry-wood-pulp-and-paper/lang–en/index.htm (accessed 1 October 2021).

20.

Junquera

Grêt-Regamey

(2020) Assessing livelihood vulnerability using a Bayesian network: a case study in northern Laos. Ecology and Society 25(4): 38.

21.

Koirala

(2015) Livelihood vulnerability assessment to the impacts of socio-environmental stressors in Raksirang VDC of Makwanpur District Nepal. Thesis, The Department of International Environment and Development Studies, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Noragric. Available at: core.ac.uk (accessed 13 May 2021).

22.

Malik

(2020) Introduction. In: Malik

(ed.) Land Alienation and Politics of Tribal Exploitation in India. Singapore: Springer, pp.1–32.

23.

Ministry of Tribal Affairs (2015) Revised scheme for development of particularly vulnerable tribal groups (PVTGs). Available at: https://tribal.nic.in/downloads/NGO/Latter-Notice/14.pdf (accessed 20 March 2015).

24.

Misra

(2016) The Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups in Odisha. New Delhi, India: Manohar.

25.

Mohanty

(2014) The Forest Rights Act and Kendu Leaf Trade in Odisha. Economic and Political Weekly 49(43–44): 15–19.

26.

Mohanty

(2015): Kutia Kandha: a socio-cultural profile. In: Ota

Mohanty

(eds) Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (Pvtgs) of Odisha, vol. 1. Bhubaneswar, India: SCSTRTI, pp.625–642.

27.

Moret

(2014) Vulnerability assessment methodologies: a review of the literature. USAID. Available at: fhi360.org (accessed 13 May 2021).

28.

Nag

(1958) Tribal Economy. Delhi: Bharatiya Adimjati Sevak Sangh.

29.

Nayak

Kohli

Sharma

(2018) Livelihood of local communities and forest degradation in India: Issues for REDD+. Available at: https://moef.gov.in/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/redd-bk3.pdf

30.

Nguyen

Holmes

(2019) Ten quick tips for effective dimensionality reduction. PLOS Computational Biology 15(6): e1006907.

31.

Oldekop

Rasmussen

Agrawal

, et al. (2020) Forest-linked livelihoods in a globalized world. Nature Plants 6: 1400–1407. Available at: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41477-020-00814-9 (accessed 30 September 2021).

32.

Oraon

(n.d.) Oraon. Ranchi, India: Bihar Tribal Welfare Research Institute, Government of Bihar.

33.

Paumgarten

(2005) The role of non-timber forest products as safety nets: a review of evidence with a focus on South Africa. Geojournal 64(3): 189–197.

34.

Radhakrishna

(2009) Starvation among primitive tribal groups. Economic and Political Weekly 44(18): 13–16.

35.

Report of the Sub-Group II on NTFP and their sustainable management in the 12th 5-year plan (2011) Available at: https://niti.gov.in/planningcommission.gov.in/docs/aboutus/committee/wrkgrp12/enf/wg_subntfp.pdf

36.

Ros-Tonen

MAF

Wiersum

(2005) The scope for improving rural livelihoods through non-timber forest products: an evolving research agenda. Forests, Trees and Livelihoods 15(2): 129–148.

37.

Roy Burman

(1982) Report of the Committee on Forest and Tribal in India. New Delhi, India: Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India.

38.

Roy Burman

(1987): Report of the committee on forest and tribals in India. In: Sinha

(ed.) Tribals and Forest. Ranchi, India: Bihar Tribal Welfare Research Institute, pp. 61–82.

39.

Sahay

(2012) Post-colonial forest policy of India and tribal communities of Jharkhand. Proceedings of the Indian History Congress 73(2012): 1350–1356.

40.

Sahoo

(2018) Common Property Resource Degradation and Tribal Livelihood. New Delhi, India: SSDN Publishers & Distributors.

41.

Sarap

(2017) Erosion of access to resource, poverty and public action in the tribal belt of Central India. Sociological Bulletin 66(1): 22–41.

42.

Sarap

Sarangi

(2009) Malfunctioning of forest institutions in Orissa. Economic and Political Weekly 44(37): 18–22.

43.

Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act 2006. Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Government of India.

44.

Shackleton

(2003) Value of non-timber forest products and rural safety nets in South Africa. In: International conference on rural livelihood, forests and biodiversity, Bonn, 19–23 May.

45.

Sharma

(1996) The Parahiyas of Palamu: An Ethnographic Study. Ranchi, India: Bihar Tribal Welfare Research Institute.

46.

Shiv Kumar (2018) Human Development Index: encapsulation of indicators of well- being of Jharkhand. Jharkhand Journal of Development and Management Studies 16(3): 7797–7781.

47.

Singh

Nair

(2014) Livelihood vulnerability assessment to climate variability and change using fuzzy cognitive mapping approach. Climatic Change 127: 475–491.

48.

Singh

(2020) Assessing livelihood vulnerability of farmers’ in backward regions of India. Indian Journal of Agricultural Research 55: 222–226.

49.

Sujakhu

Ranjitkar

Niraula

, et al. (2018) Determinants of livelihood vulnerability in farming communities in two sites in the Asian Highlands. Water International 43(2): 165–182.

50.

Sujakhu

Ranjitkar

, et al. (2019) Assessing the Livelihood Vulnerability of Rural Indigenous Households to Climate Changes in Central Nepal, Himalaya. Sustainability 11: 2977.

51.

Sylvester

Segurac

Davidson-Hunt

(2016) The protection of forest biodiversity can conflict with food access for Indigenous people. Conservation and Society 14(3): 279–290.

52.

Tikkanen

Takala

Järvelä

, et al. (2020) Challenges and solutions for non-timber forest product businesses in Finland an application of the SODA analysis. Forests 11: 753.

53.

UNICEF (n.d.) Tribal nutrition. Available at: https://www.unicef.org/india/what-we-do/tribal-nutrition (accessed 18 February 2021).

54.

World Bank (2005) Unlocking Opportunities for forest dependent people in India (in two Volumes) Volume I (main report). Available at: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/8416/3448110vol01.txt?sequence=2&isAllowed=y (accessed 7 September 2021).

55.

Wunder

Angelsen

Belcher

(2014) Forests, Livelihood and Conservation: Broadening the Empirical Base. World Development 64(1): S1–S11.

56.

Yan

Zhang

(2011) Livelihood vulnerability assessment of farmers and nomads in Eastern Ecotone of Tibetan Plateau. Available at: harvard.edu (accessed 13 May 2021).

Participatory Livelihood Vulnerability Assessment of the Forest Dwellers: A Study of Fifteen Tribes and Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups in the Eastern Indian Region

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References