The National Human Rights Commission, (NHRC) has issued an advisory to ensure protection of human rights of 75 Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs), keeping in view the media reports about the spread of Covid-19 infection among several of them. The commission, in a letter through its Secretary General Bimbadhar Pradhan to the Secretaries of the Union Ministries of Tribal Affairs and Health and Family Welfare, Union Ministries/Departments, Chief Secretaries of States and Administrators of Union Territories, has asked for the implementation of its recommendations in the advisory and sought action taken reports within four weeks.
The Secretary, Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs, and the Chief Secretaries/ Administrators of the States and UTS shall submit monthly reports to the NHRC till the end of the Covid-19 with respect to the measures taken for implementation of the advisory.
In this regard, the District Magistrate (DM) shall be designated as the Nodal Officer for the implementation of the advisory. The DMs shall also get this advisory translated into the local language/dialect of the PVTGs and ensure its dissemination among them. Some of the important recommendations, among others, are frequent RT-PCR testing drive at doorstep while ensuring prompt delivery of reports with priority to be given to the PVTGs addressing the concern
of their persistent digital divide; vaccination of all the PVTGs having population less than 50,000 within 60 days by sending mobile medical teams; supply of Covid-19 medical kit which should be followed by consistent awareness generation campaigns across residential vicinities in the local dialect; use of drones to render essential medical kit to avoid human contact; regular check on maintenance of proper hygiene and sanitation in the residential vicinity of PVTGs; deployment of dedicated team of doctors/nurses/paramedic staff in nearby PVTGs vicinities, among others.