National Capacity Building Programme for Tribal Healers Launched to Formally Recognize 1 Lakh Healers as Public Health Partners

Key facts

• The Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA) hosted the first "national Capacity Building Programme for Tribal Healers" on 16-01-2026 to formally recognize them as collaborative partners in India’s public health ecosystem.
• The MoTA has set a target to formally recognise and enable one lakh tribal healers as partners in strengthening tribal health services.
• A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between MoTA and ICMR–Regional Medical Research Centre (RMRC), Bhubaneswar, for the establishment of India’s first National Tribal Health Observatory —the Bharat Tribal Health Observatory (B-THO) —under Project DRISTI.
• The initiative will institutionalise tribe-disaggregated health surveillance and focus on the elimination of malaria, tuberculosis, leprosy, and Sickle Cell Disease elimination, aligned with the national goal of elimination by 2047.
• The programme positions tribal healers to play a transformative role in preventive care, early identification of illness, and timely referrals to strengthen last-mile health outreach.