How Much the Indigenous Women of Jharkhand, India Are in Disadvantageous Condition: Finding’s from India’s National Family Health Survey

Praween Kumar Agrawal, India HIV/AIDS Alliance

Indigenous populations are the most marginalised and vulnerable communities in India which constitutes 8.2% of India’s total population, four times higher than the total population of Australia. The state of Jharkhand accounts for 27.7% of the total indigenous population of India. This paper compares the health and socioeconomic indicators between indigenous and non-indigenous women in Jharkhand in terms of “disadvantage ratio” by exploring data of 1,614 ever-married women from National Family Health Survey–2. Our analysis revealed a highly disadvantageous situation for indigenous women in socio-demographics, fertility, family planning and in the important aspects of health, nutrition and health care indicators when compared to non-indigenous women. Indigenous women of Jharkhand are not only backward from indigenous women of all India in different parameters; they are also disadvantageous when compared to other women within the state itself. The finding calls for urgent implementation of special health care strategies for reducing health and socioeconomic-demographic disparities among the indigenous population of Jharkhand.