Published Paper Details:

ABSTRACT The scheduled tribes are the segregated and isolated communities and are concentrated in the states of Orrisa, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan were they constitute about 80 per cent of the scheduled tribe population of India. In some of the North Eastern states also they from more than 80 per cent of their population, and mostly live on the hillsides and forests. They are isolated from rest of the society to poor transportation and communication facilities and have remained as educationally, culturally, economically and socially disadvantaged sections. Tribes have been considered to be lowest in the social hierarchy. Being mostly illiterate, they have been subjected to all kinds of exploitation- social, economic and political. The percentage of population having monthly per capita expenditure below the average MPCE of the state is, in scheduled tribes the difference is more than 20 points for scheduled tribes of Andhra Pradesh and 14 points for Scheduled tribes in India. This also indicates more persons are below poverty line and are unable to have a minimum level of suggested expenditure for their survival, making them vulnerable for the vagaries of the nature. Their health status is very discouraging. Low agricultural production and lack of an appropriate food distribution system are the reasons for low levels of the nutritional status. In addition to the low agricultural production, the nutritional status of the population is to be viewed as the problem of poor quality of food intake due to low literacy rate and lack of awareness. Shortage of food and nutrient inadequacies leads to ill-health of the tribal people. This study deals with the health status of the sample households based on disease prevalence rate, distribution of infected persons by sex and age groups etc. in Vizainagaram district of Andhra Pradesh.