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Health to poverty: Tribals scrape bottom of barrel
News:
- The Expert Committee shows concern over Tribal health in its report.
Important Facts:
- Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and Ministry of Tribal Development appointed an expert committee in 2013 to make a comprehensive report on Tribal health.
- Report shows that tribal populations in the country were lagging on almost every health parameter.
- Major findings of the committee report are:
- Tribal in India lives three years less than non-Tribal population.
- Have higher malnutrition
- Very limited access to health care services.
- Significantly lower immunization coverage,
- Substantially higher low-birth-weight children, and were much more susceptible to communicable diseases like malaria, tuberculosis and leprosy.
- Tribal account for 30 % of total malaria cases and 50 % death in India.
- Urban diseases like hypertension, cancer and diabetes was widespread in tribal populations.
- Indicators leading to tribal health issue
- Only 10.7 per cent of the tribal population had access to tap water compared to 28.5 percent of non-tribal groups,
- While three out of four tribal people (74.7 percent) continue to defecate in the open.
- Overall, 40.6 percent of the ST population lived below the poverty line compared to 20.5 percent of non-tribal population.
- Report has also identified ten “special health problems” that affect tribal populations disproportionately such as
- Malaria control, malnutrition, infant mortality, family planning, maternal health, de-addiction and health literacy.
- According to the National Family Health Survey (2015-16) the infant mortality rate amongst tribal populations 44.4 per 1000 live births, significantly higher than the national average of 34.
- Lancet study in 2016 shows the life expectancy of Tribal was 63.9 years while it was 67 years for non-tribal.
- Tribal communities living in the north-eastern region was found to be more prone to non-communicable disease such as HIV, Cancer, Mental etc. than those in other parts of the country.
