Tribal communities exhibit specific signatures such as primitive traits, distinctive culture, geographical isolation, and economic and social backwardness. In addition to these, certain tribal communities exhibit significant dependence on hunting and gathering for sustenance, pre-agriculture level technologies, zero or negative population growth, and extremely low literacy levels. In India, the prevalence of squandered, stunted, and underweight children (0-59 months) seems to be 21%, 38%, and 36% accordingly. While it is 19.1%, 45.7%, and 39.5% in West Bengal as per National Family Health Survey (2015-2016). In West Bengal, 25.9% of males and 21.3% of females aged 15-49 years come under overall thinness (BMI <18.5) and 12.5% of males and 19.9% of females are overweight/obese (BMI >25) (NFHS-4, 2017). To address the under-nutrition, children from the lower economic section are encouraged to attend school regularly and to develop their nutritional status the government has initiated and continued the cooked Mid-Day Meal Programme (MDMP) for more than two decades in primary and upper primary students. But the problem of undernutrition has remained a sustained problem among children both in rural and urban India. Another most visible form attached to malnutrition is anemia which is caused by iron deficiency. The prevalence of anemia for below 5 years of children is 58.5% at the national level and in West Bengal, it is 54.2%. If we consider the scenario of Kolkata metropolitan city, the situation is alarming followed by the presence of 70% preschool anemic children, 46.4% women, and 24.6% men of 15-49 years (NFHS-4, 2017). Till date, no study has focused on the gut microbiome of the West Bengal tribal population despite the fact that there are 40 identified tribes in the state comprising 5.8 percent of the total population of the state as per the 2011 Census.
This study aims to identify the GBP of representative members of three tribes of West Bengal (Savar, Mech and Bhutia) to generate an insight into their food habits and screen gut microbes that can be associated with undernourishment.