THEBUSINESSBYTES
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DELHI, JANUARY 15, 2026
In a landmark move aligned with Prime
Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of inclusive, equitable and culturally rooted
development, the Ministry of Tribal Affairs will organize India’s first
National Capacity Building Programme for Tribal Healers on Strengthening Health
Outreach in Tribal Areas on January 16–17 in Hyderabad, Telangana. The
pioneering initiative marks a decisive step towards formally recognizing,
strengthening and integrating tribal and indigenous healers as trusted
grassroots partners within the country’s public health system.
The high-level programme will be
attended by Union Minister for Tribal Affairs Jual Oram, Minister of State for
Tribal Affairs Durgadas Uikey and Secretary, Ministry of Tribal Affairs Ranjana
Chopra, alongside senior officials from key partner ministries and institutions.
Their presence reflects the Government of India’s strong commitment to
advancing culturally sensitive, evidence-based and community-led health
interventions for tribal populations.
A defining moment of the event will be
the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Tribal
Affairs and the ICMR–Regional Medical Research Centre, Bhubaneswar, to
establish India’s first National Tribal Health Observatory, the Bharat Tribal
Health Observatory, under Project DRISTI. This path-breaking collaboration will
institutionalize tribe-disaggregated health surveillance and implementation
research, addressing a long-standing national gap in reliable tribal-specific
health data and policy evidence, while supporting disease elimination efforts in
tribal districts.
Over the years, the Ministry of Tribal
Affairs has positioned itself as a nodal force in improving tribal health
outcomes through targeted interventions such as the National Sickle Cell
Anaemia Elimination Mission, enhanced convergence with national programmes for
tuberculosis, leprosy and malaria, expansion of health infrastructure in tribal
regions, and flagship initiatives including PM JANMAN and the Dharti Aaba
Janjatiya Gram Utkarsh Abhiyan. These sustained efforts have placed the Ministry
at the forefront of addressing health inequities in tribal and Particularly
Vulnerable Tribal Group areas.
The capacity-building programme is
being conducted with robust technical and knowledge partnerships involving
premier national and international institutions, including the Indian Council
of Medical Research, AIIMS New Delhi and Jodhpur, the Ministry of Health and
Family Welfare, the Ministry of AYUSH and the World Health Organization. The
collaboration aims to bring global evidence, national best practices and
scientific rigour to structured engagement with tribal healers.
Under the MoU, a secure digital tribal
health surveillance platform will be developed, featuring GIS-enabled
analytics, dashboards and periodic tribal health outputs. The partnership will
also facilitate the rollout of the Bharat Tribal Family Health Survey and
disease-specific implementation research aligned with national initiatives such
as the National Tuberculosis Elimination Programme and the National Centre for
Vector Borne Diseases Control, while strengthening state and district health
systems and building referral-oriented capacities among tribal healers.
Together, the national
capacity-building programme and the establishment of the Bharat Tribal Health
Observatory signal an unprecedented shift in India’s approach to tribal health.
Moving beyond documentation of traditional knowledge, the initiative emphasizes
ethical safeguards, structured capacity building, institutional linkages and
data-driven action, reinforcing the Ministry of Tribal Affairs’ commitment to
harmonizing indigenous knowledge systems with modern public health frameworks
for sustainable health outcomes in the country’s most underserved regions.
