Health, nutritional and demographic study among Onges

The Onges are another negrito tribe living in the island of Little Andaman. This island lies about 90 km south of South Andaman. Before 1968, the sole inhabitants of the islands were Onges. They were once hostile. The British had been conducting raids on their villages as punishment for fighting British sailors who were intruding into their island as a result of ship wreck or otherwise. The population lost a large number of people in these raids. In 1968, the island was opened for settlers. In Harminder Bay a separate settlement was established for the Nicobarese. The Onges, who once occupied the whole island of Little Andaman, were reduced to a small bunch of persons. The population was declining fast and they were in the verge of extinction. The Andaman and Nicobar Administration intervened and rehabilitated them in two settlements one at Dugong Creek and the other at South Bay in Little Andaman. The problems faced by the Onges are similar to that of the Andamanese. Their habitat, which once occupied the whole island, has been reduced to two small settlements. Like the Great Andamanese, the Onges are also in the stage of transition from their primitive life style to modern life-style. The Administration meets all their basic necessities like food, housing, health, education etc. There is a primary health centre at Dugong Creek exclusively for the Onges, whose population is a little over 100.

The Onges were hunter-gatherers. They thrived on forest produce and the wild boars and turtles they hunt. With the institution of the welfare measures, they have lost their habit of hunting. Their food habits have changed drastically. From their conventional meat and tuber based diet they have shifted to cereal based diet. They consume a large quantity of coconuts also. The health impact of this change in life style is an issue requiring detailed studies

A new house built at the Onge settlement by the

Andaman & Nicobar Administration

Communal hut of Onges

Fig 1. Change in the population of Onges in 20th century

The Centre has carried out some studies on the health and nutritional problems and the demography of the Onge population.  The population of Onges over the last 100 years is shown in Fig .  It is observed that there has been a precipitous fall in their population strength from 1901 to 1950 followed by a gradual decrease in their number until 1990. This decline was attributed to wars, epidemic of disease, high mortality exceeding that of fertility and incompatible pairing of marriage partners leading to unproductive marriages. This downward trend showed reversal only after 1991 and there is now a marginal increase in their number to 105 in 1997. This can be taken as an indication of the positive impact of the welfare measures on the population.

The median age of the  population is 28 years. The overall sex ratio was 842.1 females for 1000 males. This is considerably lower than the 1991 sex ratio of 929 for India.

The women in the reproductive age group of 15-44 years constitute 19% of the total population as against the national average of 22 %. The median age of males is 32 years and that of females 25.5 years. 56 (53.3%) persons are married. Age difference between spouses was observed to be in the range of 4 years to 29 years. There are four couples where wives have attained menopause while the husbands are still in their thirties. 27 out of 30 ever-married women were interviewed for fertility performance and childhood mortality. 13 out of these 27 women have completed their families either because of attaining menopause or because they have been widowed. These 27 women had 119 conceptions during their marital life till date giving an average of 4.4 pregnancies per woman. There were 109 live births, 9 abortions and 1 stillbirth to these women. The mean number of live births per ever-married woman is 4.03. Since several among these 27 women have not yet completed their family, this figure will be an under estimate of the total marital fertility rate of the community. The total marital fertility rate for India is 5.4 in rural areas and 4.6 in urban areas. Till date, these 27 women together have had 544 years of reproductively active marital life and they have given 109 live births giving 200 live births for 1000 married woman-years in the reproductive age group. This can be taken as an approximation of the general fertility rate, assuming the reproductive performance remained same over the past 30 years. This is higher than the General Fertility Rate for India, which declined from 195 in 1950-1955 to 136 in 1980-85. The mean number of living girl child per ever-married woman was 0.9 or in other words, the community doesn’t have sufficient living female children to replace its women. The reason behind this unfavourable demographic situation appears to be high mortality among female children though a definite conclusion cannot be drawn because of the small number of women included in the analysis.

Twenty-one of the 109 babies born alive to the 27 ever-married women in the community died before completing their first year of life, giving an overall Infant Mortality Rate of 192.7 per 1000 live births during the past 30 years. This is much higher than the IMR in rural India, which declined from 136 in 1970 to 105 in 1985 and again to 79 in 1994. Another 30 children among the 109 live-born babies died before attaining 5 years of age and yet another 12 died after the age of 5 years giving a total of 63 childhood  deaths. The total Child Mortality Rate is 578 per 1000 live births. Only 58 of the 109 live born babies survived up to the age of five years giving an under-five mortality rate of 468/1000 live births and a child survival rate of only 53.2%.

Table 1. Consumption pattern of various food groups by Onges

The dietary intake was assessed by weighment method on three consecutive days. Table 4 shows the food-group consumption profile per consumption unit (CU). Their intake of green leafy vegetables (GLV), other vegetables, fruits, milk and milk products were much less than the respective recommended dietary allowances. Their average daily consumption of fats and pulses is nearly four times the recommended daily allowance and the consumption of fish is almost double the recommended allowance. Though the average consumption of many of the food groups per CU in the community was above recommended level, the consumption pattern differed from family to family with 3% to 100% of the families having deficient intakes of various food groups except pulses, fats and oils. The intake of all the food groups except cereals, pulses and fats, was deficient in majority of the families.