Thursday 29 April 2010

Tuberculosis: India tribal communities

Despite numerous special schemes and financial allocations, tribal communities in Hunsur taluk lead a life of poverty, marked by severe malnutrition.
In Bettada haadi in the taluk, tribal residents grapple with appalling health conditions. Eight people in 28 families have tuberculosis, five have died in the past six years, and many others are malnourished and anaemic. They live in dilapidated houses that lack sanitation. Defunct borewells, broken pipes and non-functional streetlights are common sights.
Despite substantial allocations by the Centre under the Integrated Tribal Development Project (ITDP), nothing has changed here.
Community head Sannaiah (60) said, “In our haadi, the anganwadi doors have not opened for a while, 20 families are landless, and 10 do not have below the poverty line (BPL) cards. Only a few of us have received job cards under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and even the few do not have jobs.”
Hunsur Taluk Panchayat executive officer Basavaraj admitted that there are eight tuberculosis cases in the settlement, of which the condition of three women is precarious. “They will be shifted to the district hospital” he told The Hindu, blaming the “apathy of the authorities in implementing the ITDP effectively”.

http://www.thehindu.com/2010/04/27/stories/2010042753090100.htm

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