Internal Medicine & Hospital Administration

Biography

Biography: Dr. Ambrish Gautam

Abstract

Tribal and their cultural context of illness and health is a broader known fact. Tribals, across the length and breadth of India, are following certain traditional norm related to their wellbeing and illness irrespective of their regions or religions. The present paper aims to explore the health and health care of the tribals in India. A systematic review of the literature was done to examine and identifies the factors of tribal health and health care beliefs in India and to analyze the pattern of their health care practices and beliefs. Tribal health is one of the important phases of tribal development that is ignored and underutilized for years. The core of tribal development cannot be achieved without the paying the due attention to their health care beliefs and practices. The reflections from the analysis show the deprived state of health of the tribals. Further, it is indicative from the analysis that traditional system of medicine and health care is diminishing among tribals and the modern health care systems are yet to adopt. Tribal people have their system of health care which is built upon their own belief. The tribals have a strong traditional system of medicine. But the recent empirical evidence indicates that the tribal indigenous health practices are on degrading track. Most of the tribe believes in supernatural power and magico-religious system of health care. The health condition of tribal is very pathetic. Though there are numbers of studies which reflect the poor health condition of the tribes across the length and breadth of the country; yet there is inadequate information available on the health status of the tribes in the country. The various studies have reported the problems of anemia, diarrhea, malaria and sexually transmitted diseases among these groups. There are numerous contributing factors and causes for the poor health condition of the tribes in India. The inadequate health personnel, inaccessibility to health care, and poor health infrastructure are among the few reasons for the poor health status of tribes in the country. The geographical pattern of their settlement and extremely varied regions make it furthermore difficult to reach them and address the health problems. This misery is further worsened and complicated by poverty, illiteracy, lack of awareness about the diseases, lack of safe drinking water, poor sanitation, age-old traditional practices about cure and ailments, irrational belief system. The present study is an attempt to analyze the health conditions and health care beliefs among the tribes in Jharkhand.