TN tribals better off economically than other states: NNMB survey

Chennai:

Tribals in Tamil Nadu rank poorly when it comes to sanitary facilities and separate kitchen but are better off economically than their counterparts in other eight states surveyed by National Nutrition Monitoring Bureau (NNMB).

Sharing the findings of the second repeat survey done by NNMB during 2006-08 while presenting a overview of existing status of tribal nutrition profile in India based on the studies, a paper by B Sesikeran, director of National Institute of Nutrition states that only 2.5 per cent of tribals of Tamil Nadu have access to sanitary latrine and 20.8 per cent have separate kitchen, but when it comes to average per capita income a tribal, he earns Rs 928 per month when compared to Rs 247 earned by Orissa tribal.

The paper presented by Mahtab S Bamji of Dangoria Charitable Trust and former NIN scientist, in the absence of Sesikeran during the two-day brainstorming workshop on “Addressing household level food and nutrition security for tribal areas’ organized by M S Swaminathan Research Foundation, also states the high prevalence of under five mortality among scheduled castes (65.4) in urban areas and among scheduled tribes (99.8) in rural areas.

While doling out the figures of undernutrition figures, the paper quoting the NNMB survey states Tamil Nadu has 43.6 per cent of tribal children who are underweight, 46.1 who are stunting and 15.4 wasting. The findings indicated that overall intake of various food was lower than recommended levels.

“Barring the intake of staple foods such as cereals and millets, the consumption of qualitative and income elastic foods such as pulses, milk and milk products, fats and oils and sugar and jaggery was low. This was reflected in gross inadequacy in the intake of different micronutrients such as iron, Vitamin A, riboflavin and niacin,” the paper stated.

It also stated that while the extent of severe under-nutrition decreased over the years, the prevalence of overall under-nutrition continues. Bamji said one of the main reasons for the prevalence of under-nutrition is the economic growth has not reached to poor and there has been an unequal growth.

The two-day conference, which is attended by scientists, government representatives, nutritionists and NGOs, will focus on identifying appropriate technologies for household level food and nutrition security among tribals besides identifying gaps between research and development institutes and tribal communities