Author(s): N Swati

Abstract:
Sustainable development is a concurrent theme not only economics but also in other social science literatures. Sustainable development is about our home planet and its fabric of life. It’s about the people and how we interact with each other. And, it’s about our aspiration for prosperity and posterity. As per the UN resolution 2015, the goal of sustainable development focus clearly on alleviation of poverty, hunger and good health and wellbeing besides other issues. Hence, the alleviations of poverty and hunger needs sustained efforts for uninterrupted economic growth through increase in productivity and income mostly in the developing countries of the world. But there is more to develop than just economic growth unless the transformation of the society and the management of the environment are addressed integrally with economic growth, any attempt towards sustainable development will be jeopardized over the long run. Many economic, environmental and social processes knowledge, conflict, nutrition, disease, migration, pollution, finance have outcomes which have bearing on human wellbeing both directly and indirectly through their effect on growth. When social and environmental issues are neglected for a long period, the economic growth is affected and may have irreversible consequences. There is urgent need to focus not only in economic policy making but also identify many social issues and provide institutions along with commitment and changing attitude to address them early before problems become crises. More than three quarter of the world’s population out of estimated six billions, live in developing countries of the world and nearly one million of them live in abject poverty. These people are deprived of minimum necessities of life and are undernourished and underweight. In spite of long continued efforts poverty through declining, still remains a challenge in many parts of India particularly in case of the tribal and other deprived classes. To provide the productive work and better quality of life to these people still remains a challenge and the challenge is daunting in deed. Unless these people are provided with balanced diet, safe drinking water, better education, and health facilities, the objective of sustainable development cannot be fulfilled in its proper prospective. A study was undertaken in the Morada block of Mayarbhanj district of Odisha with 150 respondents. The paper examine the consumption pattern of food on different occasion, food consumed in different stages of life and food consumed during illness along with the socio- economic status of Santal tribes. Their poor economic background as well as the low literacy particularly among women have been responsible for a food consumption pattern. Their food is rich in carbohydrate with low quantity proteins, vitamins and minerals. The poor diet is responsible for the nutritional deficiency diseases in tribal population, most particularly among the women and children. In spite of lots of steps by government and non-government agencies in improving child nutrition and healthcare, the problems still persist and need to be addressed through proper education and improvement in economy of Santals.