Food security and livelihood of tribal people in Bangladesh : The role of microfinance

Microfinance is a tool to improve the food security and the livelihood situation of the tribal people in Bangladesh. The present study was conducted to analyze the socioeconomic and loan profiles, the impact of credit on the livelihood and calorie intake level of the households. The primary data were collected from randomly selected sixty women beneficiaries through the interview schedule in Khagrachari district of Bangladesh. Tabular analysis along with a livelihood framework was used to analysis the data. To assess the calorie intake level, consumption data of seven days were converted to per person per day calorie intake level. The study showed that more than half of the respondents were illiterate and had small families. Most of the respondents owned small farm size. Required amount of the loan was received by the beneficiaries and used productive purposes mostly. The loan recovery was highly satisfactory. Microfinance was found to have a positive impact on livelihood assets. Most of the respondents were replied that women empowerment and improved leadership. The calorie intake situation of the sample household members indicated that about one-third of the household members were food secured but the rest of the two-third members were food insecure. This study also revealed that the asset's position of the respondents became better after utilizing the loan. As microfinance showed a positive impact on livelihood; government, non-governmental organizations, donor agencies, specialized banks and private organizations should come forward to offer financial help to the tribal community to improve their livelihoods and food security of tribal people in Bangladesh.