A tribal woman from Kandhamal district sits with social activists in front of the Odisha Assembly in Bhubaneswar, demanding better compensation for the family members of three women who died in Kandhamal. | Photo Credit: The Hindu
IIn November, three women died in Odisha’s Kandhamal district after consuming seeds made from mango kernels. The tragedy has brought into focus the issue of implementation of the National Food Security Act, 2013 in the state. Odisha’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government is facing criticism for blocking the Public Distribution System (PDS) on technical grounds, which has caused deprivation among marginalized communities.
In 2001 also, 24 tribals lost their lives in Rayagada district due to this reason. It is telling that after more than two decades, the death toll due to starvation in Odisha is again on the rise.
Mandipanka village in Kandhamal, where the accident happened recently, is dominated by the Kandha tribal community. The region suffers from poverty and deprivation with limited welfare interventions. Its inhabitants depend mainly on agriculture and forest products for their livelihood. Many men from the village have also migrated to other states for employment. During the monsoon that starts in July, as livelihood options dwindle, the people of Mandipanka, like other remote areas of Odisha with a tribal population, depend on the PDS in addition to the traditional food stored during the summer months. Traditional food items such as grills made from mango seeds are consumed by the tribals of the region during times of acute food shortage. Sometimes, due to improper storage, food items preserved for months become toxic for consumption.
After the BJP government assumed office in June, it decided to further digitize the PDS. This included making e-KYC mandatory for PDS beneficiaries, which delayed distribution. Residents of Mandipanka have complained that they have not received PDS rice for three months. With no other life support system and due to hunger, some families began preparing cereal from mango kernels to eat with stored fermented rice. Unfortunately, according to officials, the food was fungus-infected. Three women died during treatment.
According to Odisha ministers and district administration statements, the victims are to blame for their food practices and improper storage. This is despite the discovery that intense hunger among tribals in the region has forced them to resort to food alternatives such as mango kernel gruel.
It is also worrying that all those who consumed the infected grill were women. In rural areas, due to prevailing socio-cultural factors, women often consume low-quality food within the family; It affects nutrition. The lack of targeted policy interventions for women in this district is particularly worrisome, as about 49% of women in the 15-49 age group in Kandhamal suffer from anaemia. Strengthening the capacity of women’s self-help groups and community health workers to improve public service delivery, especially in such marginalized areas, can help increase women’s agency in managing their nutrition.
Notably, Odisha was one of the early reformers of the PDS. It introduced several measures to reduce leakages and expand coverage. However, distribution in extremely remote areas remains a significant challenge. In the case of Mandipanka, the beneficiaries had to travel up to 10 km to collect their PDS rice and the administration was eventually forced to set up a PDS sub-centre near the village. Timely supply of PDS food items is critical in these areas where people depend on them as a primary source of nutrition. Moreover, the policy decision to make it mandatory to link phone numbers with Aadhaar for accessing welfare measures assumes that all beneficiaries have mobile phones. Many remote areas such as Mandipanka do not even have cellular coverage.
Because the temporary withdrawal of state welfare schemes can cost lives, this tragedy should serve as a cautionary lesson for policymakers when making changes to critical welfare policies. The notion that digitization is the panacea for effective social policy is flawed. Further, we need to move away from a one-size-fits-all policy approach to key service delivery like PDS. Interventions in marginalized areas require adaptive approaches and regular feedback from the ground.
Shubhankar Nayak is a policy researcher. X: @subhankarnayak
published – December 18, 2024 at 12:39 pm IST