Sixty-seven years after Independence, India is still struggling with poverty, especially rural poverty, which is most widespread among the socially disadvantaged groups like the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. This study looks at a marginalised community, the Kheria Sabar, inhabiting a particular unfavourable agro-ecological area in Puruliya, West Bengal (India). The poverty and marginalisation of the Sabars is perceived to be a structural problem caused by the interaction of interlinked systems – historical, socio-economic, political, environmental and spatial. Limited access to power and resources, and seasonality in employment opportunities and food security, are the principal sources of stress that the present-day Sabars are subject to in their daily lives. This article based on ethnographic research carried out in 2004 covering 270 households in Puruliya traces the lives of the Sabars and tries to analyse their response to stress in terms of the livelihood pathways adopted by them to cope with poverty and insecurity. Though not a very positive picture, it is hoped that measures will be adopted to provide the community with security and reduce its vulnerability and these should be complemented by long-term measures aimed at asset creation and livelihood security designed to bring about more lasting economic and social transformation.
Coping, Kheria Sabar, Livelihood, Marginalisation, Poverty
