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A recent measles-rubella outbreak in the Birsa-Baihar region of Balaghat district, Madhya Pradesh, has drawn attention to the precarious health conditions of the Baiga people – one of India’s forest-based indigenous communities. At least 25 Baiga children have reportedly died in Bondari, Kondekasa, Macchurda, Gatiya, Matla and other villages, while many others are fighting the illness. Local reports suggest that cases of the outbreak had been appearing since January. However, it was only after the sarpanch of Adori village informed the sub-divisional magistrate about a death on July 22 that a substantial administrative response followed.

Health officials have identified several possible causes of the deaths, including measles, Plasmodium falciparum malaria, and E. coli contamination of water. The coexistence of these conditions makes it difficult to attribute it to a single pathogen. A medical anthropological perspective, therefore, requires a broader question: beyond what caused these deaths biologically, why did the infections become so deadly only among Baiga children?

The Baiga community are classified as a Particularly Vulnerable tribal group (PVTG) due to their historical, socioeconomic and demographic conditions. The Dhebar Commission had associated such communities with pre-agricultural subsistence practices, including hunting and gathering, very low literacy and stagnant or declining populations. 

Baiga children undergoing treatment for the measles-rubella outbreak, in Madhya Pradesh. Photo: Jay Ramteke

However, describing the Baiga as inherently “vulnerable” risks obscuring how vulnerability is produced through contemporary political, economic and institutional arrangements. During the field visits, residents complained that they have not received supplementary nutrition for nearly six months. The nearest hospital in these villages is nearly 20 kilometres away, and they also alleged that they are often reprimanded by the forest department when they try to access the forests. These conditions restrict their access to basic resources, turning social and institutional inequalities into biological vulnerability.

Thus, the Measles-Rubella outbreak in Balaghat district demonstrates that vulnerability is not simply a characteristic of a community. It is also a condition imposed upon them by the state.

When disease has more than one explanation

In the affected villages, biomedical and indigenous explanations of illness coexist. When I visited these villages, health officials on-duty in Kondekasa village described the outbreak as an infectious disease such as measles, contaminated water or malaria, Baiga residents offer a different explanatory framework.

Measles is........

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