Systematic review of the healthcare system: An anthropological perspective

The study focuses on an overview of literature on the prevailing healthcare system, healthcare practices, the traditional beliefs, and perception about health, diseases, and their remedial measures in the context of the socio-economic and socio-cultural dimensions of the tribes of rural India in general, and the tribes of Odisha in particular. Health is more of a social aspect rather than an economic one. Understanding the customs and belief system that guide their behaviour in seeking healthcare is helpful in finding the factors associated with it that regulate their treatment-seeking behaviour. It further helps us understand the levels of significance of indigenous methods of treatment in recent times. On that ground, the study is useful to provide the scenario of health and healthcare practices in tribal societies in rural India and to develop policies on tribal health.