Tribal Health and Medicines

Tribes in India, who constitute 15 per cent of the geographical area and nearly 8 per cent of the population, are truly disadvantaged and marginalized population of our country. Heath status of the tribal population is marked by all the negative features that one may find in morbidity and mortality. Poverty, illiteracy, malnutrition, lack of personal hygiene, unsanitary conditions and absence of health education, poor mother and child health services and poor coverage of the national preventive programmes have been found responsible for the poor health of the tribal communities. Besides poor coverage, the tribal communities have their own systems of medicines, dispensed through the medium of shamans, herbalists and witchdoctors, which also act as a barrier in healthcare programmes. Finally some specific genetic diseases such as sickle cell anaemia, G-6-PD deficiency, etc. are largely located in the tribal hinterlands. The government of India has implemented specific programmes for the healthcare development of the tribal communities and there have been encouraging results. However, much is required to be known in the area of tribal morbidity and traditional systems of medicines. The present work is an attempt to being together the clinical and biogenetic aspects, on one hand, and of traditional cultural heritage in the form of traditional medical systems, on the other. The papers contributed by various experts in the fields of anthropology, clinical sciences, demography and biotechnology examine the specific context of tribal habitat in order to interpret the pattern of morbidity.