Government aims to ‘formally recognise’ 1 lakh tribal healers from STs as ‘partners in health services’

The Union Government has set a goal of “formally recognising” one lakh tribal healers from across Scheduled Tribe communities in the country as “partners in strengthening health services for tribal communities”, officials said on Friday (January 16, 2026) at a capacity-building programme for tribal healers hosted in Hyderabad.

Addressing the gathering, Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram also encouraged State governments to explore “market linkages and partnerships with FMCG and pharmaceutical companies” to generate livelihood opportunities in the domain of traditional medicine. Mr. Oram added that technical sessions hosted by experts from institutes like AIIMS, the World Health Organisation, ICMR, Health Ministry and the AYUSH Ministry would go a long way in “enhancing the technical knowledge and service delivery capacities of tribal healers”.

At the plenary session, the Ministry of Tribal Affairs also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the ICMR–Regional Medical Research Centre, Bhubaneswar, to set up India’s first National Tribal Health Observatory, to be known as the Bharat Tribal Health Observatory.

“This collaboration will institutionalise tribe-disaggregated health surveillance, implementation research, and research-driven disease elimination initiatives in tribal districts with focus on malaria, leprosy, and Tuberculosis, addressing a long-standing national gap in tribal-specific health data, analytics, and evidence-based planning,” a statement from the Government said on Friday.

The announcements came at the capacity-building event put up by the Tribal Affairs Ministry, attended by representatives of top medical and research institutions, state government officials, and about 400 tribal healers from across the country. The delegates at the session also attended technical sessions on the status of tribal health, tribal health research, orientation of tribal healers to public health systems, global and Indian case studies highlighting best practices, the role of tribal healers in preventive healthcare, and their inclusion in the primary healthcare system. 

Announcing the government’s target of enabling one lakh tribals to become “partners”, Secretary of the Tribal Affairs Ministry in the Union government, Ranjana Chopra, addressed the gathering and spoke of the “aspirations of dignity and formal recognition, mechanisms to ensure inter-generational transmission of traditional knowledge, and preservation of rare medicinal plants and herbs”.

Ms. Chopra added that the move to engage tribal healers at this scale marked what she called “a final, targeted push to eliminate” diseases like malaria, tuberculosis, and leprosy in several tribal districts. The Secretary went on to note that ways of mainstreaming community-based and community-led health solutions were “cost-effective, sustainable, and grounded in local realities”.

Additional Secretary in the Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Manish Thakur, further noted that tribal healers commanded “generations of trust and social legitimacy within their communities”, adding that geographical, cultural, and systemic barriers continued to limit ST communities’ access to formal healthcare; and “the active engagement of trusted healers can significantly strengthen last-mile service delivery”.

Telangana Tribal Welfare Minister Adluri Laxman Kumar also spoke about independent indigenous health practices in several tribal communities like Gonds, Koyas, and Chenchus, among others, while stressing the need to “strengthen Primary Health Centres, Community Health Centres, and Sub-Health Centres in tribal-dominated areas”. He also called for stronger articulation of state-level tribal development priorities at the national level.