In the 1980s, the tribal people in our region came together and set up a group called the AMS. At that time malnutrition was a serious problem among tribal people because they were being denied their traditional access to the forest. This meant that they couldn’t forage, hunt or grow food any more, and they didn’t have money to buy food from shops instead.
Through the AMS, the adivasis have managed to reclaim some of their land rights. They have also been able to improve general health within the adivasi community. Maternal mortality has almost been eliminated and infant mortality has dropped below national average. However, the number of children with severe malnutrition is still surprisingly high. Discussions within the community have come up with many possible reasons for this problem. These include poverty and lack of knowledge about what to eat for a healthy, balanced diet. […]
At school, we are given ragi at break time. Ragi is a drink which is good for us because it contains lots of good ingredients, like calcium and iron. It tastes sweet. Some of us have to get up early for school and we are hungry by breaktime, so having ragi helps us to study well.
Dr Nanda Kumar, from the Gudalur Adivasi Hospital has been giving weekly classes to the Learning Centre One class. They have been going to the hospital for classes about nutrition. […]
We have learnt all about healthy foods and junk foods. We have learnt about the proteins, vitamins, carbohydrates and fats in food. We’ve learnt what different foods are good for and what happens if you don’t eat a balanced diet. […]
It is one of a range of courses that the school is developing with outside partners. Each course is linked to the curriculum but is also designed to develop useful life skills. Other courses include clothes making, carpentry, painting, accounting, soap making, agriculture and computer skills.
Source: Chembakolli » Gudalur
Address : http://www.chembakolli.com/blog/?cat=14
Date Visited: Wed May 22 2013 18:32:11 GMT+0200 (CEST)
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“It was assumed that tribal people have same health problems, similar needs and hence the uniform national pattern of rural health care would be applicable to them as well, albeit with some alteration in population: provider ratio. The different terrain and environment in which they live, different social systems, different culture and hence different health care needs were not addressed.” – Abhay Bang in Report of the Expert Committee on Tribal Health >>