COVID-19 Pandemic and Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group Hill Korwa of Chhattisgarh: A Pilot Study

The Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Community is awareness wise and technologically most backward and economically and health wise vulnerable population of India. It was found from the review of literatures that the Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG) earlier known as Primitive Tribe, their health, economic and educational status is very critical and it need a systematic policy interventions to upgrade their health, economic and educational status. Although Government has taken several initiatives to overcome the problem but it needs more time to achieve sustainable development in this kind of communities. When we observe the livelihood standards of PVTG we can say that the benefits and advantages of development and progress have still not reached to this community at proportionate level. Hill Korwa is the Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG) of Chhattisgarh state and shows all four major characteristics of PVTG declared by the Government of India. The characteristics are declining population, extreme poverty, low educational status and subsistence level of economy. Though Hill Korwa are vulnerable in general condition of the country and if we talk about the period of Covid-19 pandemic the PVTG people in remote areas are extremely vulnerable to the novel corona virus disease (COVID-19) than other communities. The pandemic may have serious effects on their well-being, livelihood, their health and their overall socio-economic status. Their economy is mostly depended upon forest produces but as time passes, they start doing labor works too which is now become crucial during this pandemic because they did not get sufficient income from labor work. Hill Korwa people mostly believe upon supernatural power for cause of disease and treatment too and fewer of them took benefits from the nearby primary and community health centers, against this backdrop, the COVID-19 pandemic among Hill Korwa surroundings may be poses a serious threat to their population. The situation of health of Hill Korwa community is in a crucial state and wretched state of affairs in spite of the Government’s major efforts and apprehension for this community. The present paper mainly focuses on the COVID-19 Pandemic and its impact on Hill Korwa tribal community in Chhattisgarh. A systematic pilot study has been conducted to understand the impacts of COVID-19 Pandemic on Hill Korwa community in Chhattisgarh’s four districts named Jashpur, Balrampur, Korba and Surguja at large. The present paper is the part of Pilot Project related research work done under Minor Research Project, Sanctioned by Indian Council of Social Science Research, New Delhi, India.