District Zero: 7 babies branded in 2 months, mega health campaign starts today in Nabarangpur

Rama Gond applied the juice of a wild fruit on his baby boy to cure him of pneumonia. The infant died in hospital

Starting Sunday, officials in India’s poorest district are mounting a massive awareness campaign to counter the rash of medical emergencies involving tribal infants, including two deaths, caused by homegrown cures and remedies prescribed by traditional community healers and quacks.

But it will be an uphill task, warn experts. For, the 45-day campaign across all 169 gram panchayats will come up against a well-entrenched belief system that prompts tribals to rush their children to the nearest healer, instead of a primary health centre.

Tribals comprise nearly 56 per cent of the 12.2 lakh population of this southern Odisha district. And doctors at the main hospital here have recorded at least seven cases of newborns falling victims to ‘treatment’ fuelled by superstition, such as branding with hot bangles and iron nails, over the last two months.

District Collector Rashmita Panda is, however, confident that the latest campaign, titled Jyoti, will yield benefits because it will, for the first time, target the 4,430 traditional healers whose count was taken based on unofficial feedback from the 4,200 primary health workers on the ground.

“Each training module will last for four hours, and traditional healers will be sensitised in Desia (a local dialect) about the disadvantages of their practice and the scientific values of different healthcare methods. They will also be taught about physiology, anatomy of human body, preventive health behaviour, Indian Penal Code and Juvenile Justice Act,” said Panda.

“The most crucial part of the training will be a role play in which the ghost of a tribal infant who succumbed to traditional healing tells its mother why it fell prey to branding even after it was delivered in a hospital,” she added.

“PowerPoint presentations using audios of a popular tribal song will educate traditional healers about various types of diseases, reason and diagnosis. At the end of the training module, the healers will be asked to submit self-declarations, saying they would be responsible if they are found branding babies in future,” said Panda.

Local health workers have also been asked to visit homes of tribals and spread awareness about the ill-effects of the practice, she added.

But while more tribals are opting to deliver children at government health facilities, which have a delivery success rate of 71 per cent, they continue to opt for traditional healers subsequently because “this practice may be at least a century old”, said P C Mohapatra, director, Centre of Analytical and Tribal Studies, a Koraput-based research centre.

“Although it is prevalent in several KBK districts, the branding of babies is peculiar to Nabarangpur. This is one of the several methods of traditional healing seen in Nabarangpur where traditional healers called Disharis, Jaanis and Gurumayees perform the role of astrologers as well as ayurvedic practitioners. They are an intrinsic part of the tribal society,” he said.

Mohapatra said that he had studied such healing practices for the last 30 years. “Earlier, the Disharis used to apply pieces of hot iron or bangles to a few spots on the body, but they seem to be overdoing it now,” said Mohapatra.

“Branding of babies is routine in Nabarangpur,” said Manorama Majhi, a retired child development project officer, who helped design the latest training module.

“The tribals believe that a child who has been branded grows up to be a healthy person. For tribal, a Dishari is not just a healer, he is part of every social and cultural function of their life. The trust that people repose on Disharis is overwhelming,” said Majhi, adding that her grandmother used to brand babies.

Mohapatra cautions that the government should not be seen as “an adversary” of traditional healers. “Rather they should try to persuade them to leave superstitious habits,” he said.

The latest campaign comes just two months after the administration held a health awareness meeting, which was restricted to local heath workers and did not include any audio-visual elements.

And yet, as babies continue to fall ill after being treated by traditional healers, District Collector Panda admits that it’s “very, very tough to change the mindset of people in the villages”.

On February 22, an eight-month-old baby boy from Raighar’s Mahubhata village succumbed to septicaemia in the district headquarters hospital, four days after his father Rama Gond applied the juice of Bhelia, a wild variety of cashew apple, on his chest and ribs.

As the condition of the boy deteriorated, the couple rushed the baby, who was undernourished and also suffered from pneumonia, to the Hataberandi health centre nearby and then the facility at Umerkote municipality, where doctors referred him to the main hospital.

A day later, the 33-day-old baby boy of tribal couple Laxmi and Padlam Harijan was brought to the hospital with 24 branding marks on its chest and tummy. Though critical, doctors say he will survive.

Two days ago, the 24-day-old baby girl of another tribal couple, Suguru and Hadibandhu Bhatra, arrived at the hospital after a local Dishari pressed a hot bangle at 22 spots on its chest to cure some ailments. The child is very critical, say doctors.

In Mahubhata village of Raighar, Rama Gond vouches for the healing power of the Bhelia seed as much as local Disari Aituram Gond.

“I had seen my father applying it to people who had breathing problems,” said Rama. Aituram, a local Dishari, recalled how he applied the blackish juice of the seed on a wound on his leg and “got cured the next day”.