Parliamentary panel recommends generating tribal disaggregated health data
A parliamentary panel has recommended the Centre to generate tribal disaggregated health data with separate classifications
New Delhi: A parliamentary panel has recommended the Centre to generate tribal disaggregated health data with separate classifications like girl children, adolescent girls, women of various age groups and women senior citizens to evolve custom-made interventions to suit the unique healthcare requirements of the community.
Heena Vijaykumar Gavit, chairperson, Committee on Empowerment of Women presented the Seventh Report (Seventeenth Lok Sabha) of the Committee on ‘Health Facilities for Tribal Women’ in the Lower House on Tuesday.
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The Committee recommended that the Ministry of Tribal Affairs work in tandem with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to generate tribal disaggregated health data with separate classifications like girl children, adolescent girls, women of various age groups and women senior citizens to help in evolving custom-made health interventions to suit the unique healthcare requirements of the tribal people, especially tribal women and girl children.
On the need for focussed efforts to address malnutrition and anaemia among tribal women and girls, the panel felt that community influencer groups and tribal leaders must also be engaged to instill behavioral changes among the tribal community for better health and nutrition outcomes.
“Though many of the government programmes are focussing on this approach currently, the Committee urged upon the government to reinforce this approach for maximising the impact of such campaigns among the tribal community so that desired results are achieved,” the panel said.
The parliamentary standing committee also noted that in the absence of any effective treatment for SCD (Sickle Cell Disease), the disease burden can only be reduced with appropriate state-of-the-art diagnostics/intervention strategies which are primarily dependent on reliable data. It recommended that the government should complete the screening of all tribals for SCD, from newborn to the old, with emphasis on the adolescents and antenatal women in a time-bound manner so that the next generation of the tribal people are free from this disease.
The Committee also recommended the tribal affairs ministry to focus on educating women and their husbands about the proper use and benefits of modern contraceptives.
It urged the ministry to organise special drives to promote male contraceptives among tribal men and bust the myths around male contraception so that family planning responsibility is shared between the husband and the wife.
The Committee also urged upon the ministry to make use of Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) in coordination with the Ministry of Rural Development for building all-weather roads in tribal areas so that the tribal population, including pregnant women, can access healthcare facilities in time.
The panel also recommended that all habitations with a population of 250 in hilly and tribal areas should be covered under PMGSY and all-weather roads should be made to improve connectivity in such rural areas.
The Committee recommended that the government should take measures to make the tribal population aware about the importance of getting treated for tuberculosis (TB) and the need for undergoing the full course of treatment for effective controlling of the ailment.
It said provisions under Ayushman Bharat initiative should reach every person living with leprosy disease, especially among the tribals.
The Committee recommended to the government to take steps to ensure that effective coordination is maintained between ASHA and Anganwadi workers at the ground level, especially in tribal areas, in order to ensure the effective reach of various nutritional programmes of the government among tribal population and also ensure that timely registration of pregnant mothers at PHC (primary health centre) is done for regular health check-up during ANC (antenatal care) period.
This will help in generating accurate health data of tribal women and children in the respective areas.
The Committee urged the Ministry of Tribal Affairs to coordinate with the other ministries concerned for addressing the infrastructural gaps existing in the tribal areas and pursue the concerns relentlessly so that social determinants of health become better in the tribal areas.
The Committee also called for implementing a mechanism for effectively tracking the spending of TSP funds by various ministries, exclusively on the tribal population, and periodically assessing the actual benefits received by them out of Tribal Sub Plan (TSP) funds in the 177 tribal districts with special focus on the health, nutrition, and education of tribal women and children.
