The e-portal on tribal health and nutrition named ‘Swasthya’, is a first of its kind e-portal, providing all health and nutrition related information of the tribal population of India in a single platform. Swasthya will also curate innovative practices, research briefs, case studies, and best practices collected from different parts of India to facilitate the exchange of evidence, expertise and experiences.
Swasthya Health Portal
The Ministry of Tribal Affairs has recognized Piramal Swasthya as the Centre of Excellence for Knowledge Management (CoE for KM) for health and nutrition. The CoE will constantly engage with the Ministry and provide inputs to drive evidence-based policy and decision-making pertaining to health and nutrition of the tribal population of India.
Comprising 104 million individuals, India’s tribal population predominantly lives in hilly, forested areas that are difficult to access. There is a vast difference between the health outcomes of India’s tribal population vis-à-vis its non-tribal population. Maternal mortality, under-five mortality and malnutrition rates are higher among tribal groups. In addition, there is a higher prevalence of malaria, tuberculosis and other communicable diseases. The current status of tribal health and nutrition requires all stakeholders to come together and join forces to improve the overall scenario. However, the biggest bottleneck in this area, often hampering policy-making, is the absence of data specific to the tribal communities.
The heterogeneity of the tribal population and absence of information related to them points towards an urgent need to consolidate data, information, practices and learnings for informed and evidence based decision making. The Centre of Excellence (CoE) for Knowledge Management on Health and Nutrition aims to address this challenge by curating all data and information; thereby improving access to information related to health and nutrition of India’s tribal populations.
Developing and nurturing Swasthya is a core mandate of the CoE, among the following:
- Creating a consolidated data repository for tribal health & nutrition
- Facilitating evidence-based policy making
- Documenting successful models, best practices and innovative solutions
- Disseminating and facilitating exchange of knowledge
- Creating networks and collaborating with stakeholders to improve tribal health & nutrition outcomes
