Meet one of India’s most prolific killers: Of India’s estimated 2.8 million new cases of tuberculosis (TB) last year, over 4 lakh among them succumbed to the disease. That’s almost 1100 victims every single day.
Among TB’s most frequent victims — in terms of both infection rates and mortality — are the Sahariya tribe in Madhya Pradesh. At any given time, 1,518 out of every 100,000 Saharia people living in Sheopur district, and over 3,000 in the district of Gwalior, are suffering from TB. By way of comparison, the prevalence per lakh population for the rest of India is just 211, and for the Baiga and Bharia tribes, neighbours of the Sahariyas, the numbers are 146 and 432 respectively.
Besides being infected seven times as often, Sahariyas also experience very low success rates in TB treatment: in some villages, ‘every third house has a TB widow’, and Sahariya people are twice as likely to have Multi-Drug Resistant (MDR) TB, which is much harder to cure.