Paper short abstract:

Reproductive child health is one of the vital issues for most of the human settlements and particularly for tribal communities. Use of indigenous knowledge is the common practice for health care among tribal because of their poor economic condition, cultural prescriptions and lack of awareness.

Paper long abstract:

The present study is being carried out in the villages of Koraput block of Koraput district which are well connected by roads and not far from the headquarter hospital. The objective is to explore the visibility of the modern medicines, the importance of the indigenous knowledge system, status of education, role of awareness programmes and role of the economic empowerment for the realization of the basic human rights among these villagers.

The villages are mostly inhabited by tribal communities which depend on the traditional knowledge to mitigate the health hazards concerning the reproductive and child health. Both child and women are integral part of the family and yet their health hazards are not addressed by the family members. Use of indigenous knowledge and medicines (herbal) are more common in case of child birth, its development as an adolescent girl, her first pregnancy and number of pregnancies thereafter. Despite their close proximity to the district headquarter hospital or the PHCs, their poor socio-economic condition, tribal culture and gender bias deprive them to avail the facilities at the hospital and to use the modern medicines. Various awareness programmes on health safety have very little impacts on these communities except availing the benefits of reproductive and child health programmes offered by the government.