Correspondence article on the research protocol titled ‘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’ published in Wellcome Open Research in December 2019 [version 1; peer review: 2 approved]

Research on indigenous (Tribal) populations is a step towards understanding the various tribal health issues and challenges and paves the way for addressing these issues. However, such populations are categorised as vulnerable and marginalised according to National ethical guidelines by Indian council of medical research. Hence, adequate measures are needed to be ensured by researchers while undertaking any research involving tribal populations to safeguard the rights of research participants. The purpose of this correspondence is to initiate a discussion among the researchers to give due consideration to research ethics especially when the research is being conducted on vulnerable populations and take adequate safeguard measures as suggested by National ethical guidelines to protect the rights of study participants.