The tribal community is considered marginalized based on various ways that are debatable in academia. In the 21st century, the majority of the tribal community is situated nearby the forest area. Tribal have their own culture, social, political, administrative, education, and health system that helps to sustain their community value and help them to differ from other community. This paper focused on Gond Tribal in Korchi Block of Gadchiroli District, Maharashtra. Through a qualitative approach and In-depth interviews, observation methods were used to understand the livelihood and Health system. Gond tribal is engaged with agriculture and forest base livelihood. Industrialization and Globalization have been influencing the structure of the tribal community. The government taking initiatives through the implementation of the PESA, FRA for tribal development. It can be a way of inclusive by the various government actions and policies to bring changes within the community. However, after independence, it is difficult to consider that structure-based changes led to tribal community development.
Livelihood and health have very co-relationships to sustain economic development. This economic development leads to health system of the community. The tribal community uses their traditional knowledge as a priority based. Despite the implementation of the ICDS system, Gond tribal community gives secondary preference to the mainstream health system. In the feminist lens, women have a secondary role at the family and community level. Women play a vital role in forest-based activity and agriculture work. However, the decision-maker of the family is men. However, expenditure on women specifically on their health part gets negligence. This situation impact directly increases the maternity death and malnutrition of children. There is a need to understand the struggle of the Gond community in the context of health and livelihood and make the way forward for inclusive development.
