Quality of Life of Tribes in Rural India

The tribes in India are spread over the length and breadth of the country. The tribal populations are recognised as socially and economically vulnerable. Their lifestyles and food habits are different from that of their rural neighbours. They depend on minor forest produce and manual labour for livelihood. They may not have adequate income. Their food consumption pattern is dependent on the vagaries of nature and varies from extreme deprivation (in the lean seasons) to high intakes (in the post-harvest period). About 21% of them are scheduled castes and 24% are tribes. Purulia suffers from very poor conditions in terms of hygiene, poverty, and lack of safe drinking water, resulting in major health problems such as diarrhoea, malaria, filarial, TB, anaemia, and others. Poor child birth and nutrition standards lead to high IMR and MMR. Maternal malnutrition which was quite common among the tribal women was also a serious health problem especially for those having numerous pregnancies too closely spaced and reflected the complex socio-economic factors that affected their overall condition.