Tuberculosis in Tibetan refugee settlements in India: a human rights perspective

The statelessness and political vulnerability of Tibetans-in-exile in India are crucial drivers of tuberculosis (TB) in this population. The violent and forced displacement of Tibetans from Tibet into India in 1959 led to overcrowded and poorly resourced settlement camps that sparked a micro-epidemic of TB among exiled Tibetans, which persists to this day. This paper focuses on the diversity and precarity in legal status among Tibetans in exile in India, human rights implications and impacts on drivers of TB particularly access to housing, health care, nutrition, and employment. The absence of a refugee framework in India, notwithstanding a broadly receptive stance toward the Tibetan people and the Tibetan Government-in-Exile, intersects with and compounds these barriers. We posit a human-rights based approach, which is needed to ensure states are accountable for safeguarding fundamental human rights that are pivotal to ending TB in Tibetans in exile, and other populations facing sociolegal and health precarities.