Launch a national tribal health mission -Abhay Bang

-The Hindu

It can be the path to a peaceful health revolution for the 11 crore tribal people in India

For the first time since independence, a tribal President has become a reality in India. This is a very positive signal given to the tribal people by the Narendra Modi government. On this International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, let us explore how this symbolic gesture can be turned into a health revolution for the tribal people of India.

Few people are aware that nearly 11 crore tribal people (enumerated as Scheduled Tribes (ST) in the Census of India (2011) live in India. They constitute 8.6% of India’s population, the second largest number of tribal people in any country in the world. The Prime Minister and the national leadership of the Bharatiya Janata Party are aware of this fact, which is one of the reasons why they have chosen a tribal woman for the highest position in the country.

A study published in The Lancet, titled ‘Indigenous and Tribal Peoples’ Health’ (2016), found that India held the inglorious distinction of having the second highest infant mortality rate for the tribal people, next only to Pakistan. This is not an honourable position.

Findings

On this day, in 2018, the first national report on the state of India’s tribal people’s health was submitted to the Government of India by the Expert Committee on Tribal Health. The 13-member committee was jointly appointed by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Government of India. I was the Chairman of this committee, with the Additional Secretary and Mission Director of the National Health Mission as the Member Secretary. It took five years of enormous work for the committee to dig out evidence and construct a national picture. The picture was both pathetic and promising. These were some of the few major findings.

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