School of Health System Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Deonar, Mumbai, India.
PLoS One. 2019 Nov 21;14(11):e0225119. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0225119. eCollection 2019.
The Baigas due to their primitive agricultural techniques, poor education status and poor population growth have been conferred the status of 'Scheduled Tribe' by the Government of India. The community bears the brunt of inequities, reflected in their poor nutritional and socioeconomic status. We have employed qualitative design for the study, as we wanted to understand the contextual factors for Baiga tribal children's inferior nutrition status. Twenty in-depth interviews with the mothers of the children suffering from moderate to severe malnutrition and several other interviews were conducted with the key stakeholders like anganwadi workers, Integrated Child Development Scheme supervisors, Accredited Social Health Activists, public distribution system shopkeeper and registered medical practitioners. Interviews with the key informants were conducted in the Balagahat district of Madhya Pradesh. Key factors responsible for perpetuating malnutrition were then identified through thematic analysis. It was found that dissatisfaction with public services and indifferent attitude of public servants resulting in poor uptake of public services further accentuated the problem. A qualitative enquiry into the issue of high and persistent levels of malnourishment among these tribal children revealed several aspects which quantitative method may not have captured. This implies that while framing a policy for improvement in the nutrition status in such population, a holistic approach is required instead of focussing on one aspect such as supplementation of nutrition alone.
由于原始的农业技术、较差的教育状况和人口增长缓慢，巴加人被印度政府赋予“在册部落”的地位。该社区首当其冲地承受着不平等的影响，反映在他们较差的营养和社会经济状况上。我们采用了定性设计来研究这个问题，因为我们想了解巴加部落儿童营养状况不佳的背景因素。我们对 20 名患有中重度营养不良的儿童的母亲进行了深入访谈，并对关键利益相关者进行了其他访谈，如安格班迪工人、综合儿童发展计划主管、认证社会卫生活动家、公共分配系统店主和注册医生。访谈在中央邦巴拉加特区进行。然后通过主题分析确定了导致营养不良持续存在的关键因素。研究发现，对公共服务的不满和公务员的冷漠态度导致公共服务的利用率低，进一步加剧了这一问题。对这些部落儿童中高且持续存在的营养不良问题进行定性研究揭示了一些定量方法可能无法捕捉到的方面。这意味着，在为改善这些人群的营养状况制定政策时，需要采取整体方法，而不是仅仅关注营养补充等单一方面。
