Medical Anthropology: Tribals of Rajasthan

It is generally presumed that tribals in India tend to be healthy, living as they do in unpolluted surroundings away from the stresses and strains of modern living. This no longer hold good as evident from the many health reports appearing with health related problems. It is alarming that sufficient data regarding tribal health is not available with the government itself. The plight of trabals whose health parameters are already well below the national average is worsening. One of the basic factors which affect the tribal health is the physical environment from which majority of them draw their sustenance. Degraded eco-systems are no longer able to support tribal population, many of whom have registered a higher growth rate than the national average. On the contrary, there are tribal communities, which are actually declining and being threatened with extinction, because of mainutrition which renders them more susceptible to diseases. The diseases epidemic proportion among tribals illiteracy and lack of access to medical care. The present study deals with human settlements, human activities and health among tribals of Rajasthan. Human settlements are territorially bounded social system or subsystems (economic, material culture, religious, political, ethical educational, legal, social reproductive etc.) serving a resident population in the tradition of anthropological science, the study was undertaken within total social and cultural context. Although research were was carried in few villages, but it did not confined only to these. Village was chosen as unit of study because it is the most manageable functional unit in which a pattern of tribal culture and structure of tribal society could be studied. The main purpose of the study was to obtain an integrated picture of the tribal’s health and sickness, nutritional status, socio-economic conditions, settlement pattern and environmental conditions against the background of existing medical and sanitary facilities available, so as to discover the main health provision and necessary measures for bringing about improvement in the health care system.