Action against Hunger: Community Kitchens in the Abandoned Tea Plantations of North Bengal

State Action Against Hunger and Inequality (SAHAI), a poverty alleviation program of the Government of West Bengal (GoWB) was extended to the abandoned tea plantations in the Dooars region, where the tea plantation communities, majority of whom are tribals, were facing extreme levels of hunger and starvation. It was estimated that nearly 1,500 people from the tea plantations of North Bengal have died due to hunger and starvation-related issues in the early 2000s. Given this context, the elderly population within the tea plantations were vulnerable to hunger and starvation. This paper, based on empirical evidence from qualitative research study, examines the functioning of the SAHAI program in abandoned tea plantations. It also analyses the plantation crisis and the hunger deaths in the tea plantations in the post-liberalization period and locates it within the broader political and economic context. The paper briefly discusses the political backdrop of introducing the SAHAI program, its nature and functioning and challenges of community kitchens in abandoned plantations. The study reveals that while the program provides a critical intervention by ensuring at least one meal daily to the elderly, preventing starvation deaths, it faces number challenges in implementation, inadequate budget allocations, and the absence of legal entitlements.