Over 46k tribal families await food kits in Karnataka from state govt since June

Three months into monsoon, 46,700 tribal families in the state are yet to receive nutritional food kits from the government.

The Congress government extended the food kit facility from once in 45 days to once a month.

However, due to procedural delays, families from 1,025 tribal hamlets have not received their kits since June. Tribal communities face restrictions to enter the forest and collect produce and resources due to Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.

Income limitations 

They struggle to get daily-wage work or market for handicrafts items like cane baskets, particularly during rainy season. 

To address these issues and high levels of malnutrition in tribal communities, the government started issuing nutritional food kits in 2008.

Initially, they distributed kits to two communities — Jenu Kuruba and Koraga communities.

More communities

Now, the kits are given to 10 tribal communities including Kaadu Kuruba, Jenu Kuruba, Erava, Soliga, Kudiya, Male Kudiya, Gowdalu and Asalaru, Siddi and Koraga. 

Director of state tribal welfare department B Kallesh says, “Earlier, these food kits were procured through district-level tenders. But now, it has been decided to procure them at state level.”

While the monthly food kit guidelines have been issued by the government, there is a three-month delay in distribution. The change in tender process would delay distribution by at least another month, says Kallesh. 

4G exemption

“The department has sent a proposal to the government to avail 4G exemption, under Karnataka Transparency in Public Procurement Act, 1999, to give these food kits without floating tenders. We plan to procure them from state-level agencies like Kendriya Bhandar and Janatha Bazaar. We are awaiting government order for this,” he said. 

However, officials say that the tribal communities will not be given the food kits they were supposed to get from June. 

Officials say they tried to get permission from the government to procure food kits from old tender holders, while a decision is made on the new tender holder and procurement process, but this was not successful. 

“It was in February 2022 we last received the kits,” says Jaya, a gram panchayat member from Moolevoor tribal hamlet in H D Kote taluk of Mysuru district.

Land rights

Many tribal families which relocated from the forest are yet to get land rights for farming, she said. “We are not getting daily wages. Where is the money to buy nutritional food grains,” she asks.

In the nearby Vaddara Gudi tribal hamlet in H D Kote, Putta Siddaiah, president of large area multipurpose (LAMP) society of the taluk, says, “Many tribal people do not have ration cards to get rice under Anna Bhagya scheme or Rs 2,000 under Gruha
Lakshmi scheme.”

The food kit is insufficient for some families, like his five-member household, he explains.

“They provide a common kit, irrespective of the number of people in each family,” he says.

In Mysuru district, there are 219 tribal hamlets and 12,860 families. Of this, 119 tribal hamlets and 6,640 tribal families, totalling over 25,000 people, are in H D Kote. 

Life is especially difficult in monsoon, says Susheela Naada, president of the Federation of Koraga development associations of Udupi and Dakshina Kannada districts.

No market for products

“Tribal people here (in Udupi) depend on making baskets (butti) from ‘bilalu’ (a root) and bamboo cane. Some depend on daily wage work. Due to the rainy season, neither do they have a good market to sell baskets nor do they get daily wages.”