Economic Analysis of Health Seeking Behaviour of Scheduled Tribes in Anantnag District, Jammu and Kashmir

The purpose of this paper is to study the health seeking behaviour of the scheduled tribes in Anantnag district, Jammu and Kashmir. The sample of the study consists of 300 respondents, which were selected by Multistage Random Sampling Method. The major objectives of the study are: -1. To examine the disease wise treatment seeking behaviour of the sample respondents. 2. To find out the cost of the health care services for different system of medicine. The health problems of the scheduled tribes need special attention because the tribal people have distinctive health problem. The major insight of scheduled tribe population on health, health need and health care services are lack of infrastructures, inaccessibility to health institutions, ill-treated by government hospitals staff, acceptability and affordability are some of the main problems contributing to their poor health status. The inaccessibility to health care and reluctance to seek help for health issues remain a significant problem in scheduled tribe areas. In considering priorities for health, greater effort and resources are required to increase their awareness and change attitudes towards health issues. It was observed that scheduled tribe people generally do not pay much attention to the general health problems like fever, cough and cold, but for the treatment of the Acute and Chronic diseases, they mostly prefer to go to public hospitals. In the case of children's problems, they are mostly treated by giving some indigenous treatment, and in case the problem should persist after a certain period, the help of a medical practitioner is sought, who may or may not be qualified. It is only in very advanced stages of the problem that the help of a qualified medical person is sought.