Nutritional profile of Irular tribes

India is a home to a large number of tribes known for their varied culture and tradition. The irular tribes are the ancient tribal group living in the lower slopes of the Western Ghats Mountain spread over Coimbatore district. The present study was conducted in nine Government tribal schools situated in iular tribal areas. Before initiating the study, permission was sought from the district tribal welfare officer and the respective school headmasters. A questionnaire was developed to collect the details regarding the family size, occupation and income level, directly from the tribal adolescent girls. The screening test for finding the prevalence of anaemia was planned in all the nine schools. The information regarding the screening was passed on to all the nine schools through announcements in school assembly and put up in the school notice boards. Total number of registered tribal adolescent girls was 615. But only 523 participated in the screening programme. As a part of the screening, clinical examination was carried out for all the 523 adolescent girls for the presence of signs and symptoms of anaemia. The haemoglobin level of all the girls was estimated using Sahli’s haemometer method (Pal et. al 2003). The results showed that all 523 adolescent girls were anaemic. Clinical examinations revealed that these girls were having signs and symptoms of anaemia.