A STUDY ON GENERAL SOCIAL AND HEALTH STATUS OF TRIBAL COMMUNITY IN MANKULAM PANJAYATH, IDUKKI DISTRICT,STATE OF KERALA, INDIA
Author(s):
SUJITH.K
Keywords:
Adivasi, Aboriginals, Scheduled Tribes, Nutritional anemia, Body mass index, school dropouts
Abstract
— The word ‘tribe’ is generally used for a socially cohesive unit, associated with a territory, often possesses a distinct dialect and cultural norms. They are the aboriginal inhabitants of our country who have been living based on a natural environment and have cultural patterns congenital to their physical and social environment. It is a human social system existing before the emergence of nation-states and in some cases, continues to exist independent of the state structure. Adivasis is the collective name used by many indigenous people in India. The term ‘Adivasi’ is derived from the Hindi word ‘adi’ which means of earliest times or from the beginning and ‘vasi’ meaning inhabitant or resident. Officially Adivasis are termed as ‘scheduled tribes’ but this is the legal and constitutional term. The tribes have been confined to low status and are often physically and socially isolated instead of being absorbed. They are the poorest, most marginalized, oppressed, and depressed people in the country. Kerala, a southwest small state in India, has achieved outstanding achievements in all human development indices in the country popularly known as the ‘Kerala Model’. In many respects, Kerala's health status is almost on par with that of developed economies. The state has succeeded in increasing life expectancy as well as reducing infant and maternal mortalities. However, the celebrated Kerala model of development has not made much change for the socio-economic life of the marginalized sections of Kerala. The indigenous population or the Adivasis has been struggling to cope with the means of daily survival in the state. The present study attempted to analyze the social and general health status of tribal communities of Mankulam panchayath of Idukki district in Kerala. The study surveyed 150 tribal households in the panchayath and it clearly showed how tribal communities lag in various development indices like income, housing conditions, education level, land ownership, and general health conditions compared with non-tribal groups in the area. Women are more vulnerable among tribals just like everywhere. Excluded communities such as tribals typically face a lack of access to healthcare services that others do not. School dropout cases are much higher among tribals than non-tribals. Lack of proper housing, sanitation facilities, and lack of awareness often leads to non-access to various health and social beneficiary programs for the community. Lack of adequate income is the main reason for household poverty which leads to low nutritional intake results in low body mass index and nutritional anemia especially in pregnant women. Poor social conditions are found to be the root cause of high alcohol consumption among tribal communities which is associated with a wide range of social and health problems including domestic violence, child neglect, loss of income, high morbidity, and early mortality. Above all most of the tribal hamlets are located within the forest area or in isolated pockets where road access is a real challenge, transportation issues are one of the prime reasons for the poor access to quality health care. The lack of sufficient manpower and infrastructure facilities in the health care facility aggravates the problem
Article Details
Unique Paper ID: 166118

Publication Volume & Issue: Volume 11, Issue 2

Page(s): 76 - 87
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