Response to correspondence article on the research protocol titled .

In this correspondence, we, co-authors and collaborators involved in the  respond to a recent article published in Wellcome Open Research titled  In the first part, we provide overall clarifications on the THETA study and in the second part respond to specific comments by the authors of the aforementioned correspondence.

Towards Health Equity and Transformative Action on tribal health (THETA) study to describe, explain and act on tribal health inequities in India: A health systems research study protocol.

In India, heterogenous tribal populations are grouped together under a common category, Scheduled Tribe, for affirmative action. Many tribal communities are closely associated with forests and difficult-to-reach areas and have worse-off health and nutrition indicators. However, poor population health outcomes cannot be explained by geography alone.

Affirmative action, minorities, and public services in India: Charting a future research and practice agenda.

The National Health Policy in India mentions equity as a key policy principle and emphasises the role of affirmative action in achieving health equity for a range of excluded groups. We conducted a scoping review of literature and three multi-stakeholder workshops to better understand the available evidence on the impact of affirmative action policies in enhancing the inclusion of ethnic and religious minorities in health, education and governance in India. We consider these public services an important mechanism to enhance the social inclusion of many excluded groups.