Background
Exploitation of the Dongria Kondh
Nowadays most of the households don't have enough food during the 2 to 3 months of scarcity. They depend on external sources and collect wild uncultivated crop varieties to survive. During the rainy season they consume 80% of their food supplies because they are cut off from the rest of society.
Only one third of the total hill slope is used to grow food crops. Almost half of the land is located above the cultivation zone. As a result of soil erosion, there's a hughe decline in yield per acre in the last ten years. This has led to a very high malnutrition level and mortality rate of children younger then 1 year.
The Dongria Kondh are traditionally horticulturists. Due to the absence of appropriate marketing linkages, the Dongrias have not been able to get fair price for their produces. This implies that the traders are enjoying the benefit of their hard work.
Although the Dongrias are neither traditional rice eaters nor growers, the government provides the villagers with rice at a subsidized price. This encourages a new pattern of food consumption and production in the community. The number of farmers producing local food crops to meet their food requirements is gradually decreasing. As a result, their rich crop diversity is reducing from 45 to 20 varieties.
This trend indicates an alarming pattern: a reasonably self sufficient community is becoming dependent on external sources for their essential food and their control over food & farming system is systematically weakening. The Dongria Kondh community becomes vulnerable and their culture in agriculture is endangered. Once a self sufficient community, now there is an average debt of Rs. 2800 at household level. These loans are taken primarily to meet food shortages. In return they mortgage their annual yield of pineapple, banana, ginger, garlic... with a market value of at least Rs 5,000/-.
