TRIBAL HEALTH: Studying Sexual Behaviour

The onslaughts of health hazards in the form of STIs/STDs/HIV/AIDS have created new threats for all human societies transgressing the boundaries of the East or the West. The spread of these complications, which are sexually communicable, depend upon socio-economic environment, ecological patterns, cultural ethos, religious sanctions, sexual preferences, clinical or medical orientations, physical mobility, migration patterns and other family, marriage and kinship-related institutional structures.

This book attempts to understand how socio-cultural and economic environment of southern Rajasthan influences the sexual life of the tribal population of the region. It further examines how ‘change’ generating agencies and mechanisms have exposed the innocent tribal people to the menace of STDs making their life very tough and miserable not only socio-culturally but also politico-economically. The study is of great relevance not only to the sociologists and anthropologists, but also health practitioners, policy makers, social activists and public administrators.

Mohammad Akram is teaching in the Department of Sociology and Social Work, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh. He was exposed to tribal world-views during his long teaching career at Pratapgarh (Rajasthan) that is situated in Tribal Sub-Plan area of Rajasthan. His extensive interactions with the tribal households, villages, fairs and exposure to their behaviour patterns, beliefs and practices helped him to develop familiarity with their intimate lifestyles. The book is a result of that intensive as well as extensive field study.

He has been writing on issues related to health, sustainable development, and empowerment of marginalized people. He has to his credit several research papers published in reputed journals and an edited book “Health Dynamics and Marginalised Communities.”