Fertility and Family Planning in Primitive Tribes

Out of 52 Primitive Tribes of the country 7 are located in the undivided Madhya Pradesh. These tribes live in undulating hilly terrains and dense forests far from modern amenities. Lack of awareness, ignorance, illiteracy and poverty altogether have affected the lives of these tribals. Though, they have been put into one category ‘Primitive Tribes’ yet each of them is at a different level of development, are socially and culturally distinct and facing different kinds of problems. One of the problems in these tribes has been stagnant or diminishing population growth. Excepting a few attempts by the anthropologists no study on their sociodemographic characteristics have been done. Moreover the backgroud data on which these tribes have been categorized is not based on empirical data. It is surprising as to how in absence of basic socio-demographic indicators, how the government is monitoring its development Programmes which are being carried out for these tribes. The author has personally visited these tribes and has collected quantitative as well as qualitative data from for Primitive Tribes – Bharias, Birhors, Hill Korwas and Kamars. The data analysed in the book have revealed that the Primitive Tribes have low fertility and high mortality levels – a unique characteristic. Moreover inspite of ban on sterilization operations, about one third of the couples have been found sterilized and in case of about one seventh couples both of the partners have been operated upon. The book presents pitiable state of affairs in these communities and Government’s non-sincere efforts for their development.