This document provides an overview of tribal communities in India, including their population and geographical distribution, history, health issues, and government initiatives. It notes that India is home to around 84 million tribal people from 698 communities, many of whom face health challenges due to poverty, lack of access to healthcare, and social discrimination. Key health problems include high rates of malnutrition, maternal and infant mortality, infectious diseases, and genetic disorders resulting from consanguineous marriages. Both government and non-governmental organizations have implemented various schemes to improve tribal welfare, education, livelihoods, and access to healthcare services. However, more efforts are still needed to adequately address the diverse needs of tribal groups and improve their overall living standards and health status

1. DR P RAMU
1

2. CONTENTS
•Introduction
•Population and geographical
distribution
•History
•Who are the tribes?
•Tribal health
•Magnitude of health
problems
•Multifactor challenges
•Health problems
•Initiatives by the Government
•Schemes by the government
•Non government
organizations
•Conclusion
•References
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3. INTRODUCTION
•India: home to almost half the tribal population of the world.
•India: second to Africa in terms of tribal mass.
•The tribals of India, constituting 8.2% of the total population
belong to around 698 communities or clans.*
•75 of these groups  PRIMITIVE TRIBAL GROUPS.
•ADIVASI, VANYAJATI, VANVASI, PAHARI, ADIMJATI and
ANUSUCHIT JAN JATI.
3
*Source: Registrar General of
India, Census of India,2001

4. Contd…
•Tribal communities of India cannot be clubbed together
as one homogeneous group.
•They belong to different ethno-lingual groups, having
diverse faith and are at varied /different levels of
development - economically, educationally and culturally.
4

5. Contd..
•In tribal societies – concept of health, fitness and diseases
varies between different groups.
•In a tribal habitat – a person is considered ill if he/she is
incapable of doing the routine work.
5

6. The essential characteristics of these
communities *
•Primitive Traits
• Geographical isolation
• Distinct culture
•Low levels of literacy
• Shy of contact with community at large.
• Economically backward
•*Source: Dimensions of tribal health in India –
Salil Basu
6

7. POPULATION & GEOGRAPHICAL
DISTRIBUTION
•India - 84.33 million tribal's. It accounts to 8.2% of population.
•698 groups of tribes in the country –
•75 are primitive tribes characterized by declining / static/low
growth rate.
•Maximum tribal population concentrated in North-East India
(highest in Mizoram-94%) followed by Central India
(Chattisgarh:31%) and lowest proportion in South India.
Source:Registrar General of India, Census of India,2001
7

8. 8
6 predominantly tribal states / UTs: 9 states
Arunachal Pradesh,
Meghalaya,
Mizoram,
Nagaland,
Dadra and Nagar Haveli and
Lakshadweep
where more then 50% population is
tribal
Andhra Pradesh,
Assam,
Jharkhand,
Gujarat,
Chattisgarh,
Maharashtra,
Orissa,
Rajasthan and
West Bengal
where majority of Schedules Tribes
(ST) population lives.
*Source: Registrar General of India, Census of India,2001

9. 9

10. HISTORY
•In 1935 the British passed the Government of India Act 1935,
designed to give Indian provinces greater self-rule and set up a
national federal structure.
•In 1937 The Act introduced the term "Scheduled Castes", defining
the group as "such castes, races or tribes or parts of groups within
castes, races or tribes, which appear to His Majesty in Council to
correspond to the classes of persons formerly known as the
'Depressed Classes', as His Majesty in Council may prefer".10

11. Contd..
•1850s these communities were loosely referred to as Depressed
Classes, or Adivasis ("original inhabitants")
•Verrier Elwin: tribal activist; Christian missionary.
• best known for his early work with the Baigas and Gonds of central India
• he also worked on the tribals of several North East Indian states especially
North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA)
•Dayamani Barla: indigenous tribal journalist and activist from
Jharkhand
11

12. WHO ARE THE TRIBES?
•The tribals live in forest areas, hilly regions, mountainous
places and deep valleys.
•Various names – Eg:- primitives, animists jungle people,
adivasis and aboriginals.
12

13. Definition*…
•Bardhan A.B.(1973) defines the tribe as a “course of a
Sociocultural entity at a definite historical stage of development.
It is a single endogamous community with a cultural and
psychological make-up going back into a distant historical
past.” In this definition the emphasis is on the cultural and
psychological make-up.
*Source:-Jyothi BD. Health Status Among Tribes in Haliyal & Ganadal Village of
Karnataka 2013 Jan;2(1).
13

14. Contd..
•George Jose and Shreekumar S.S.(1994:2) stated that:
“The tribe is a social group of a simple kind, the
members of which speak a common dialect, have a
single government, act together for common purposes
and have a common name a contiguous territory.
Relatively of common descent .
Here the tribe is considered as a social group with
common dialect, purpose, name and culture.”
14

15. Contd..
•According to Gillian and Gillian: “A tribe is a group of
local community which lives in a common area,
speaks a common dialect and follows a common
culture.”
15

16. Primitive tribal group
• It is a government of India classification – purpose of enabling
improvement in the conditions of certain communities with
particularly low development indices.
• The Dhebar commission (1960-1961)
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17. The features of a such a group
•pre-agricultural system of existence- practice of hunting and
gathering,
•zero or negative population growth,
•extremely low level of literacy in comparison with other tribal
groups.
In 2006 the government of India proposed to rename "Primary
tribal group" as Particularly vulnerable tribal group".
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18. CLASSIFICATION OF TRIBALS*
Based on the manner in the which the tribals primarily
and distinctly make their living.
Food gatherers and hunters.
Shifting cultivators.
Settled agriculturists.
Artisans .
Pastoralists and cattle herders.
Folk artists.
Wage labourer.
*Source: Dimensions of tribal health in India – Salil Basu 18

19. LAYERS IN TRIBAL
POPULATION
19
ACCULTURATED LAYER
SETTLED SCHEDULE TRIBE
AGRICULTRISTS
THIRD
CATEGORY
FOURTH
CATEGORY

20. TRIBAL HEALTH
•At one end of the spectrum are those "untouched by
civilisation".
•These groups - inhabit the forests that are closely linked
to every aspect of their lives.
•It must be stressed that these people generally enjoy a
healthy lifestyle.
20

21. Contd..
•Their daily routines with periods of work and rest: linked
strongly to seasonal cycles.
•Have a balanced diet accessed through agriculture,
hunting and food gathering.
•Concept of health: more functional than biomedical:
healthy unless she/he feels incapable of doing normal
work assigned to that age/ sex in that culture.
21

22. Contd..
•Other end of the spectrum: the adivasis- displaced from
the forest- modern lifestyle mirrors many of the problems
of our age.
•Opportunities are limited in the mainstream society:
suffer from all the ills of the very poor.
•They also suffer social discrimination – “uneducated
junglee”.
22

23. Magnitude
23

24. MULTIFACTOR CHALLENGES
a. Socio-demographics and economic status
b. Education
c. Job opportunities
d. Health status
e. Migration and retention
24

25. HEALTH PROBLEMS OF TRIBES
• High level of consanguineous marriages leading to defects in the race and
hereditary diseases
• High prevalence of sickle cell anemia and other genetic diseases
• High fertility rates, low institutional delivery rates
• Higher maternal mortality and infant mortality compared to national average
• Inadequate immunization status
• High prevalence on malnutrition- stunting and underweight- especially
among preschool children
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26. HEALTH PROBLEMS OF TRIBES
• Communicable and Tropical diseases like malaria, and parasitic diseases
widespread
• Increasing burden of non communicable diseases like diabetes mellitus
• Kyasannur Forest Disease (KFD) is a looming threat to forest tribes with
occasional deaths
• Health care facilities absent or lacking in terms of infrastructure, personnel,
finance, accessibility and availability
• Poor hygiene and sanitation
• Lack of emphasis on mainstreaming their traditional systems of medicine
• Poor health seeking behaviour 26

27. TRIBAL WELFARE PROGRAMMES/
SCHEMES IN INDIA
1. Integrated Tribal Development Project
2. Nursery-cum-Women Welfare Centres
3. Mid Day Meal Scheme
4. Janshala Programme
5. Tribal Alternate Education Programme 2002-2007
6. Scheme of strengthening education among scheduled tribe girls in low
literacy districts
7. Incentives for education
8. Ashram schools
27

28. Contd..
9. Pre matric hostels
10. Post matric hostels
11. Grant in aid schemes for welfare of scheduled tribes
12. Scholarships
13. Navachetana scheme
14. National Overseas Scholarships
15. Books Bank Scheme
16. Central Sector Scheme for up gradation of merit of SC/ST students
17. Tribal research centre
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29. Initiatives by the government
• Five year plans -- 3rd Five year plans – Tribal developmental blocks 5th
Five year plans – Integrated Tribal Developmental Programme5th and
6th Five year plans– Tribal Sub plans
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30. In Andhra Pradesh – NRHM
strategies
• Improving the accessibility
• Infrastructure development
• Incentives to health functionaries- Human resources
• Training
• Equipment , drugs and supplies
30

31. Integrated Disease Surveillance Project
•It seeked to involve all the stake holders including tribals in
disease surveillance to enable rapid identification of disease
conditions and outbreaks to prevent large scale impacts and also
is geared towards a quick response from the health system to
this information.
31

32. Objectives of IDSP- Tribal development plan
1. The establishing of state-based system of surveillance for
communicable and non-communicable diseases and their risk
factors so that timely and effective public health actions can be
initiated in response to health challenges in the country at the
state and national level, and
2. To improve the efficiency of the existing surveillance activities
of disease control programs and facilitate sharing of relevant
information with the health administration, community and
other stakeholders so as to detect disease trends over time and
evaluate control strategies.
32

33. Non Government organisation role
in tribal development
•NGOs have come to engage in an imperative role in tribal
health management and advocacy activities.
•The role of NGOs in sensitizing tribal people and make them
demand their entitlements for health rights is very significant.
•Research evidences: NGOs have done positive impact on
tribal’s health status in many part of India 33

34. Contd..
•Tribes do not believe NGOs role in their development
•High exploitation of tribes by NGOs
•The funds availed from governments by NGOs: not reaching the
main beneficiary-the tribes
•Empty promises and innumerable surveys for data without any
benefits or improvement in the status of the tribal participants
•No evidence of impact and effectiveness of NGOs in tribal
development 34

35. Vivekananda Girijana Kalyana Kendra (VGKK)
•The VGKK was founded by Dr. H Sudarshan in 1981.
•Objectives:
• To implement a comprehensive, holistic, need-based, gender & culture-
sensitive, community -centered, system of health care integrating indigenous
health traditions.
• To establish an education system .
• To promote biodiversity conservation and sustainable harvesting of Non-
Timber Forest products.
• To ensure livelihood security
• To empower tribal communities
35

36. Health
• 20 bedded Tribal Hospital with laboratory, X-ray and Operation Theatre
providing free Medical care.
• Mobile Medical Unit.
• Community based preventive, promotive and rehabilitative programmes
through local health workers.
• Sickle cell anaemia research and screening work;
36

37. • Training programme for health workers and house surgeons.
• Control/eradication of Leprosy, Tuberculosis, Epilepsy, Blindness,
Cancer; Mental health, Dental health and Community Based
Rehabilitation Programme.
• Traditional Medicines & Revitalization of Local Health Traditions.
• Tribal Auxiliary Nurse Midwife (ANM) programme.
37

38. Education
•School (Pre-school to Class X) for more than 500 tribal
girls and boys with hostel facilities for 200 students
•Four Non-formal schools in remote forest areas.
•Pre-University College.
•Industrial Training Institute & Job Oriented Course in
Forestry.
•Drama school .
•Science college & ANM Training school.
38

39. Vocational training and production
•In the various cottage industries like weaving, incense-
stick making, coir-rope making, bakery, tailoring and
knitting, handicraft, beekeeping, carpentry and
printing.
•Conducted with the help of the District Industries
Centre (DIC), Government of Karnataka.
39

40. Contd..
•To organize tribal people, wipe out the fear and remove
inaction in the community.
•To inculcate self-help and cooperation by making them
aware of their potentials.
•To fight for implementation of constitutional rights for
the tribals.
•To promote tribal culture
40

41. •Help form Peoples Organization (Soliga Abhivrudhi
Sangha) at village, taluk and district levels.
Networking and advocacy:
•Participation in "Tribal joint Action", a federation of
voluntary organisations working for tribal people.
•Promotion of Tribal Federations
41

42. Conservation and livelihood security
• Sustainable harvesting of NTFP and processing – Honey, Amla
and herbal medicines.
• People's action against forest fire, poaching and quarrying.
• Capacity building of Tribal co-operatives.
• Environment education in the school.
• Conservation education and eco-tourism.
• Sustainable agriculture - organic farming and seed bank
promotion. 42

43. Conclusion
• Tribal development is a vast and complex issue which is multi-dimensional .
Some of the aspects of tribal development are health, education and
economic.
• There cannot be singular policy for such diversified Indian tribes having
specific and distinct needs.
• Thus it is necessary to understand their needs, condition , cultural norms,
traditions and economic life.
43

44. References
• Murthy S. National Seminar on Tribal Health in India: Issues & Challenges.
A Report on the proceedings of the seminar.
• Balgir SR. Tribal Health Problems, Disease Burden and Ameliorative
Challenges in Tribal Communities with Social Emphasis on Tribes of
Orissa.
• Vijayalakshmi V. Scheduled Tribes and Gender: Development Perceptions
from Karnataka 2003. Institute for Social and Economic Change:Bangalore.
• Basu S. DIMENSIONS OF TRIBAL HEALTH IN INDIA. Health and
Population – Perspectives and Issues;2000.23(2): 61-70.
• Jyothi BD. Health Status Among Tribes in Haliyal & Ganadal Village of
Karnataka.INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH
2013 Jan ; 2(1):231-235b
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