Piramal Foundation, the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) arm of Piramal Group, on November 19 announced the setting up of a Tribal Health Collaborative for India in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
The new collaborative will focus on improving health and nutrition in high-burden and tribal districts, in support of the Government of India's work to achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3 by 2030.
SDG 3 is focused on ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all.
The Tribal Health Collaborative aims to build a high-performing, sustainable health ecosystem to address the needs of the marginalised sections of society, particularly tribal communities. It will cover a population of more than 150 million across several districts, including Aspirational Districts in Central, Eastern and North-Eastern India.
The collaborative will work closely with the government by supplementing and complementing its efforts towards achieving Universal Health Coverage.
"We're committed to supporting India's vision to achieve its SDG 3 goals by 2030. Increased focus on rapidly transforming the lives of marginalised sections of society will serve to accelerate impact at scale. Piramal Foundation has been working with unserved and underserved tribal communities across several states in India, including 25 of the Aspirational Districts," said Ajay Piramal, Founder, Piramal Foundation.
"Given the complexity and magnitude of the problem, we believe that partnerships with like-minded, values-based organizations such as Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, that seek to complement the Government’s efforts, will provide the much needed impetus," he added.
Bill Gates, Co-chair, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation said, "India's focus on health and nutrition, particularly for its most vulnerable, is critical to the country and the world's efforts to meet SDG3. We look forward to continuing our partnership with the government in its work to improve the health and well-being of the world’s poorest."
India's tribal population has poor health indicators when compared with the general population. The average maternal mortality rate in India is 130 deaths per 100,000 births, while tribal communities average 230 deaths per 100,000 births. Similarly, other health indicators such as infant mortality, child malnutrition rates and incidence of malaria and tuberculosis are poorer for tribal communities than the general population.
The collaborative will rest on two key pillars: working closely with the government, and co-designing and co-implementing interventions for tribal communities.
The collaborative is slated to launch in early 2020 and additional partners will be announced shortly.
