NEW DELHI: According to an assessment report conducted by members of forest rights groups, researchers and experts, there is poor access to public distribution system among tribal people and other traditional forest dwellers during the lockdown
Ensuring food security in tribal areas should be a priority area for the government, the report pointed out.
The researchers will submit the assessment report to the Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA) on Monday.
With tribal migrants reportedly having problems accessing the PDS, rations should be made available at the doorsteps and PDS should be universalised, it said.
Tribal migrant workers stranded away from their hometowns without any ration, cash and community support were vulnerable to acute mental stress too, the report said.
According to Census 2011, 40.6 per cent of ST population lived below the poverty line in the country as against 20.5 per cent of the non-tribal population in the country.
An expert committee report on the state of tribal health in India submitted in 2018 showed the tribal population in the country faced a triple burden of diseases with malnutrition being rampant.
Malnutrition in tribal people was more in the non-tribal population, the report had pointed out.
The Centre should provide state governments with adequate financial resources to ensure tribal communities and OTFDs receive cash entitlements, the analysis said.
There were reports where tribals were not able to get direct cash benefits as they did not have bank accounts or banks were located in remote locations.
The report has relied on primary information from grassroots organisations working across states and secondary reports from media and civil society organisations.
The other major challenge faced by tribal communities and OTFDs during the lockdown was the collection, use and sale of minor forest produce (MFP) with April-June being a peak season for generating their income.
According to the MoTA, around 100 million forest dwellers depend on MFP for food, shelter, medicines and having cash with them.
Tribal communities derive 20-40 per cent of their annual income from MFP.
The Centre recently revised the minimum support price for 49 MFPs to provide relief to tribal groups amid the lockdown. It urged states to speed up procurement operations for MFP on Sunday.
The highest price revision was done for the items of giloe, mahua flowers, hill grass and lac.
The MoTA should issue guidelines and advisories to states for raising awareness among particularly vulnerable tribal groups (PVTGs), tribal communities, pastoralists, OTFDs to take precautions against COVID-19, the assessment recommended.
There was a need to boost food security and livelihood programmes for the tribal people, it added.
The other suggestions include disseminating information materials in pictorial form and in local tribal languages that explain the nature of the disease, quarantine and containment measures, testing and myths, and setting up of a COVID-19 response team for tribal areas.