Socio-economic and demographic descriptions of tribal people subsisting in forest resources of Jharkhand, India

Abstract

A field study based on structured interviews and personal observations was carried out to study the socio-economic and\rdemographic characteristics of tribal (Munda, Oraon and Lohara) people subsisting in forest resources of Bundu block in Ranchi\rdistrict of Jharkhand, India. The primary data were collected from 164 sample households drawn from 9 selected villages employing\rmulti-stage random sampling technique. The results indicated that majority of the respondents were middle aged having low\rliteracy up to primary level, no membership or membership of only one organization with nuclear family systems and large family\rsize. The size of land holding among most of the respondents were either marginal or small, engaged mainly in cultivation having\rone temporary structured house, one pair of bullocks, medium farm implement possession, 6 to 10 livestock, medium material\rpossession, income from forest resources upto Rs. 8000/ annum and gross annual income upto Rs. 30000/ annum. The surveyed\rhouseholds have higher sex ratio compared to the sex ratio of all India tribal population and over all India population. The\runemployment problem is very high among the surveyed population. Hence, the livelihood diversification using existing forest\rresources should be given topmost priority as important strategy of poverty reduction and socio-economic upliftment of backward\rtribal people by the policy makers, planners, economists, extension workers and social scientists in the area.