Parl panel slams poor action on tribal women's health, child marriage data

Business Standard

4 days ago

A parliamentary panel has expressed dissatisfaction over the government's "lack of seriousness" to improve health facilities for tribal women, highlighting persistent challenges like inadequate data, poor implementation of malnutrition and anaemia reduction programmes, and slow progress in addressing child marriage.
In its second report tabled in Parliament on Wednesday, the Committee on Empowerment of Women criticized the Ministry of Tribal Affairs for failing to take a proactive role in coordinating with other ministries to improve tribal health.
The report reviews the government's response to recommendations made in a 2023 report on 'Health Facilities for Tribal Women'.
The committee said it was concerned at the "lack of seriousness" in implementing tailor-made interventions for tribal women and children, especially regarding the generation and use of tribal-specific health data.
Simply taking note of the committee's recommendations is not sufficient, the panel stated, urging the Ministry of Tribal Affairs to collaborate actively with the Ministries of Health and Women & Child Development to generate disaggregated data based on gender and age for tribal populations.
The report noted that tribal health data is still being subsumed under broader rural health statistics, leading to ineffective health interventions.
There is a need for a dedicated Tribal Health Data Coordination Unit within the ministry and formal collaboration with research institutions, the panel recommended.
On malnutrition and anaemia, the committee acknowledged national efforts like POSHAN Abhiyaan and Anaemia Mukt Bharat, but noted that tribal-centric strategies remain missing.
It criticised the ministries for failing to provide outcome-specific data and called for regionally customized campaigns that align with tribal customs and practices.
The committee urges immediate social audits of Anganwadi centres in tribal regions and clearer roles for community influencers, it added.
The panel also flagged sickle cell anaemia as a continuing crisis in tribal communities. While it welcomed the launch of the National Sickle Cell Anaemia Elimination Mission, it pointed out that the ministry had not provided timelines for screening or set up support systems like local help desks to assist tribal patients.
Given the low digital literacy among tribals, relying on voluntary online registration is impractical, the committee observed.
Other concerns raised included the high rate of early child marriages in tribal regions, which the committee said were closely linked to maternal deaths and adolescent pregnancies.
The parliamentary panel also called for joint action plans between ministries and greater involvement of ASHA and Anganwadi workers to delay early marriages through awareness and education.
It also recommended steps to address the issue of unreliable birth registration in tribal areas, which leads to age misrepresentation and under-reporting of child marriages.