Title:
IMPACT OF COVID19 ON THE TRIBAL’S OF MAHARASHTRA STATE

Authors:
Mahadev Dhondiram Jadhav and Prof. Rose Nembiakkim

ABSTRACT:
Introduction
Covid 19 is a pandemic declared by World Health Organizations on March 11, 2020 and 523,786,368 cases are confirmed and 6,279,667 deaths are recorded globally whereas 43,140,068 cases are identified in India and 524,490 people from India have lost their lives due to the Corona virus. Every social community is affected during this pandemic including indigenous communities which are called tribal or Adivasis. Around 8.6% of the population of India is a tribal population in which Maharashtra has 1,05,10,000 people. The objective of this paper is to understand the situation of tribal communities of Maharashtra during the Covid 19 pandemic, the services received during lockdown and to identify the required efforts to be taken for the tribal communities to tackle Covid 19 or such type of issues in future.
Methodology
A rapid survey has been carried out to understand the impact of Covid 19 on tribals. The respondents were selected randomly and the data was collected through Google form. All of the respondents are belonging to the tribal area and some of them are staying currently in the urban area. The data generated from the Google sheet is presented below.
Key findings
The data is collected from 165 respondents and out of these 71.5% respondents were male, 72.1% respondents were from 22 to 30 years of age group and 46.1% respondents were graduate. 41.2% villages have clinics but only 15.8% villages have medical store. Only 22.4% villages have residential doctor. 86.7% villages have public distribution system. All of the respondents have AADHAR card and 86.7% respondents have Ration card. The income of 73.94% respondents has gone down during the lockdown. The majority of the tribal communities do not have secure transportation facility during the health emergency. 38.2% and 39.4% respondents have received information about Corona from Sarpanch and Gramsevak respectively. Mobile phone is the main source of information followed by television and newspapers. 29.1% respondents cannot tell any information about Corona. The storage of harvested material is one of the major problems the tribal people face and lockdown started in harvest season which is a big economical loss for them. The 87.3% and 84.2% respondents got rice and wheat from PDS respectively. The 89.7% respondents have told that the existing PDS services should be continued. Only 30.9% tribal children got the online education. Half of the respondents told that the supplementary food is received for pregnant women and only 40% respondents told that the regular health check-up facility is received to pregnant women. 84.8% respondents said that they got two times of meals and 47.3% respondents mentioned that the food was not sufficient or irregular hence sometimes they have gone through the starvation phase. 58.8% respondents received mask to prevent infection of Corona. 55.8% respondents told that they have used the sanitizer to prevent Corona. Only 20.6% respondents told that the Non-Government organizations helped them during the lockdown period. The government has given LPG gas cylinders free for three months. The central government announced that 80 crore people would be given wheat at the rate of Rs.2 per kg, and rice at Rs.3 per kg and three months ration in advance would be given.
Conclusion
We are not ready to tackle such type of pandemic in future. The government needs to take lead and establish systems in upcoming years. The health department is very weak hence it needs to strengthen on priority. There should be a dedicated plan for tribal area.