| Summary: | This research paper begins in a state of Kerala, which has its health indices mostly in par with
developed economies and still having challenging health conditions among the tribal populations
(Health Index, 2019). Tribal populations which consist around 1.5% of the total population are
still facing problems, like high death rate, malnutrition, mental disorders etc. There have been
many welfare programs and schemes both at the national and state level conducted in order to
bring up their health status. However, the prevailing health condition of the tribal communities in
Kerala is attributed to many other factors like socio economic condition, illiteracy, negative
attitude towards health care etc. The current health communication programs among the tribal
communities are ASHA workers launched by National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) and
Tribal Promoters by the Scheduled Tribal Department of Kerala. The main objective of this
study is to explore and assess the nature of health communication done through the Tribal
Promoters and ASHA workers in Wayanad, in order to establish whether lack of proper
communication is one of the reasons behind the poor health status in the communities. The study
conducted was qualitative exploratory study. In depth interview and focus group discussion was
conducted among the ASHA workers and Tribal promoters. QDA miner lite software was used
to analyze the collected data. Through this study it was found that current health communication
strategies by the government is appreciable, but it can improve its efficiency by dealing with
some of the major cultural, anthropological and technological approaches.
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