Barnali GOGOI, Cotton University, India
Meghna DAS, Cotton University, India
Tribal communities of India are characterised by strong kinship bonding and as such the members of the society inherit this social asset generation after generation. Social capital has been identified as one of the five capitals of livelihood framework of the Department for International Development (DFID), 1999. New kind of social capitals have been introduced to these societies in the form of groups and associations as a part of development policy. The area of the present study Kamrup district covers an area of 3105 square km with 12 per cent scheduled tribe population of total population 1517542 in the district. Household survey was conducted in 2019-21 in 985 households selected by stratified random sampling. The study finds that the social capital prevalent among scheduled tribe (ST) population of the study area can be grouped into traditional and modern or newly introduced. These capitals play an important role in ‘bonding, bridging, and linking’ (Annet Abenakyo et al, 2007) the members to develop strategies for sustainable livelihoods. It further reveals that adults of 62.54 per cent sampled households are members of newly formed social associations or groups while reciprocity index indicating social bonding is as high as 93.91 per cent. It has been found that traditional social assets enable the members of the society to face, manage and overcome ‘stress and shock’ more effectively while the modern social assets enable them to develop income strategies. Linkages are developed through both traditional and modern social assets enabling them to explore and utilize other assets available to them.
Mots clés : scheduled tribe|social asset|livelihood strategy|sustainable
A103738BG