Health seeking behavior of tribes – Identifying multidimensional causes

The tribal population in India constitutes 8.6% of the country’s population (Census, 2011) and is considered as socially and economically backward and disadvantaged. Tribal poverty has come into sharp focus since their food sources from the forest have started dwindling. Also, widespread poverty, illiteracy, under nutrition, absence of safe drinking water and sanitary living conditions, poor maternal and child health services and ineffective coverage of national health and developmental services have been identified by several studies, as possible contributing factors to the dismal health conditions prevailing among the tribal population in India. In this article, the author focuses on certain interacting factors like the infant mortality rate, life expectancy, genetic disorders, sexually transmitted diseases, nutritional status, child health and health care practices which are generally responsible for determining the health status and health behavior of tribal communities.