Health Facilities for Tribal Women Report
Recently, the Parliamentary Committee on Empowerment of Women has presented a report on ‘Health Facilities for Tribal Women’.
According to the National Family Health Survey (NFHS)-5 (2019-2020) data, tribal women suffer from malnutrition, high infant mortality rate (41.6%) and communicable diseases like malaria, tuberculosis (TB).
Key observations by the committee:
- There is an absence of a separate database on tribal health conditions like Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR).
- MMR is the number of maternal deaths per 100,000 live births in a given period.
- The prevalence of sickle cell disease (SCD) is high in tribal communities due to lack of effective treatment.
- Early marriage of tribal women leads to early pregnancy and other common health problems.
- There is a lack of antenatal and postnatal care facilities.
Recommendations:
- The Ministry of Tribal Affairs should collaborate with the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) to prepare a central health database for tribes.
- Also separate classifications should be done in this data for girls, women of different age groups etc.
- The health portal should be linked to different government databases like nutrition tracker.
- Financial assistance should be provided for the treatment of SCD. Also, its special branch should be established in hospitals.
- A special action plan should be prepared for the continuation of tribal girls in school.
- In addition, alternative education programs should be developed for ‘out of school’ girls.
Other related facts:
- The Ministry of Railways has launched the Tribal Pride Corridor. It is aimed at strengthening rail infrastructure and boosting rail connectivity in tribal dominated areas.
- This initiative has been taken keeping in mind the economic viability, connectivity to tribal and remote areas, alternative routes and socio-economic factors.
Source – The Hindu
