Health care beliefs and practices among Garasia Tribe in Udaipur district of Rajasthan

Abstract

There is a great volume of literature that stands in favour and against the health beliefs prevailing among tribal populations. Within the epidemiological and public health statistics, the tribal population stands as a significant population with high levels of reported burden and of diseases and mortality. The tribal population has little or no access to health care. When there is no access to the health care system, they develop their own system of health seeking behavior. In the present study, the health beliefs and practices among Garasia tribe in Rajasthan are inquired. Garasia is a Scheduled Tribe inhabiting the Indian states of Rajasthan and Gujarat.This group is reported about having religion as well as spiritualism. The researcher is trying to have a detailed inquiry into the health system, health beliefs, and practices prevailing among the community, the health problems and burden of diseases, and the response of public health system and the role played by traditional medicine towards the health needs of the community. The present study is carried out with the objectives of understanding the cultural and spiritual beliefs associated with health problems, and to study the prevalence of health problems and associated health care practices among Garasia tribe. A sequential explanatory research strategy was applied, in which the initial study was of quantitative nature followed by the qualitative study. A large proportion of the respondents prefer traditional healthcare practices over modern medicine. The belief system remains the major reason behind the preference of traditionaland magico-religious methods. newline newline newline newline