Top-down Approaches to Health do not Work: Government programmes for the Indigenous that do not listen to and involve the local communities will not succeed in improving wellbeing.

Attapadi, India’s first designated tribal block, nestled among the hills near Silent Valley National Park in Palakkad district, Kerala, is home to the Muduga, Kurumba, and Irula indigenous communities. The oft-discussed Kerala model of good health at a low cost received a jolt in 2013 when reports began to pour in about high levels of infant deaths among the indigenous people of Attapadi. 1 The response of both the centre and the state was swift. The-then union minister for rural development, Jairam Ramesh, visited Attapadi in 2013 as an emissary of the prime minister to take stock of the situation and implement relief measures.