Dispel negative notions in tribal people over screening blood for sickle-cell disease: Tribal Affairs Minister

Mr. Munda’s remarks came as he was speaking at the launch of a training session for an awareness campaign that’s part of the government’s mission to make India “free” of SCD by 2047.

As the government tries to screen seven crore tribal people for sickle-cell disease (SCD) and attempts to create a data bank of tribal people’s health, Tribal Affairs Minister Arjun Munda on Tuesday said there’s considerable suspicion in the target tribal population over why the government was testing their blood. 

Mr. Munda said this tended to create a negative impression in many, just as the rumours over COVID vaccines had done earlier, and that the biggest challenge was to dispel these notions and ensure maximum community involvement in the mission. 

Mr. Munda’s remarks came as he was speaking at the launch of a training session for an awareness campaign that’s part of the government’s mission to make India “free” of SCD by 2047. This genetic blood disorder is especially prevalent among tribal populations in India. 

Explained | How is India addressing sickle cell anaemia?

As part of its mission, the government is trying to screen about seven crore tribal people in 17 identified States for SCD and traits of SCD by 2025. Mr. Munda had said earlier this year that this exercise would be expanded to create a digital data bank of detailed health profiles of tribal people living in these areas to help government healthcare systems to accurately treat them. 

“This target that we have set and started to achieve might make us feel like we are doing great. But there are also challenges at the same time. In places I have visited, a common question from the target population is, ‘why does the government want to test tribals’ blood’?” Mr. Munda said on Tuesday at the launch of the awareness and training campaign.

He added that this would be a key challenge to overcome in the government’s mission, and that the solution lay in trying to ensure maximum community involvement. Apart from this, Mr. Munda said that “there will also be many people who do not like good things happening” and also people “who like things to be stalled and then pointing it out”.