Our endeavour is to ensure that health concerns of the tribal population are holistically addressed: JP Nadda
JP Nadda, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare and Jual Oram, Union Minister of Tribal Affairs recently presided over an MoU signing ceremony between Ministry of Health and Ministry of Tribal Affairs for working in a cooperative partnership to improve the health and well-being of students in tribal schools.
Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Sudarshan Bhagat, Minister of State for Tribal Affairs along with Preeti Sudan, Secretary (Health) and Deepak Khandekar, Secretary of Tribal Affairs, were also present at the ceremony. At the function, the Expert Committee on Tribal Health also submitted its detailed report with findings and recommendations jointly to the Union Health Minister, JP Nadda and the Union Minister for Tribal Affairs, Jual Oram.
“In line with our government’s commitment to universal health coverage with priority accorded to the health needs of those who require it the most, our endeavour is to ensure that health concerns of the tribal population are holistically addressed,” J P Nadda said at the function. He further added, “We have signed an MoU to move forward and improve the health indicators of the needy and poor. Simultaneously, measures would have to be taken to ensure tribal population are co-opted and not left out.”
Jual Oram assured that the government will implement the recommendations of the report. He further said that the report presents a comprehensive review of health of the tribal population and there is a need to adapt strategies to bridge the existing gaps in health of the tribal population. The main objectives of this memorandum are to provide age appropriate information about health and nutrition to the children in schools, to promote healthy behaviors among the children that they will inculcate for life, to detect and treat diseases early in children and adolescents including identification of malnourished and anemic children with appropriate referrals to PHCs and hospitals, to promote use of safe drinking water in schools, to promote safe menstrual hygiene practices by girls, to promote yoga and meditation through health & wellness ambassadors and to encourage research on health, wellness and nutrition for children.
For achieving these objectives, the Health Ministry will sensitise the principals and train two teachers designated as ‘Health and Wellness Ambassadors’ in all the functional Eklavya Model Residential Schools, ashram schools and other schools supported by Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA) using the existing capacity building mechanisms of MoTA in the States. MoTA will issue the required directives to the states for extending support to the Health Ministry in implementing all the activities related to School Health Programme including sensitisation of principals and training of ‘Health and Wellness Ambassadors’.
The Expert Committee on Tribal Health was constituted jointly by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare and the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Government of India in 2013. The committee comprised of 12 senior experts who have worked for health in tribal areas, research institutions and secretaries of States with tribal population and was chaired by Dr Abhay Bang. Apart from visiting the states, the committee used various source of data such as RHS, NHSRC, ICMR, Census, IIPS, NFHS, NNMB and NSSO. Online suggestions were invited and also invited organisations working in tribal areas across states to present their work and best practices as a learning experience to take some of those experiences further in the national programme.
Also present at the ceremony were Dr Balram Bhargava, Secretary (DHR) and DG, ICMR, Dr S Venkatesh, DGHS and Manoj Jhalani, AS & MD (NHM) along with other senior officers from the Ministry of Health and Tribal Affairs.