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‘Acknowledge tribal wisdom’

Photo: Lingaraj Panda

Efficacy matters: Visitors enquiring about the herbs put in a stall at the national workshop on tribal healers and exhibition of tribal medicine in Bhubaneswar on Friday. —

BHUBANESWAR: A tribal healer from Tamil Nadu V. R Govindan claims to have found the formula for preparing medicine for HIV and AIDS affected patients.

His method of preparing the medicine is very simple. Make a paste of cotton plant leaf and drink with hot milk of a black goat! “If the disease is in the initial stage, the patient will surely be cured,” Mr. Govindan claims.

Showing another plant species called ‘Keelnelli’ (phylanthus), he says: “Drinking its paste along with curd will offer respite if the disease is in the initial stages.”

The tribal medicine practitioner from Javathi Hills of Tamil Nadu claims to have cured over 50 persons by using these species and has been receiving patients from urban pockets such as Vellore. He was not alone on the list of tribal healers who had come from 11 States to exhibit their traditional wisdom here on Friday.

Sixty-five-year-old Phunu Singh from Amarkantak area of Madhya Pradesh claimed to have mastered the process of preparing medicine for blood cancer. “Boil the bark of Rakta Rohina plant and drink the solution for one month for cure,” Mr. Singh told visitors at his stall.

On the inaugural day of the national workshop on tribal healers and exhibition of tribal medicine, rare leaves, routes and barks were on display. These tribal medicine practitioners also claimed to have solution for paralysis and malaria and chronic diseases such arthritis, piles, asthma and blood pressure.

Expressing concern that traditional wisdom was eroding, noted anthropologist and Director of Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya (IGRMS) K.K. Basa said: “We are not going to romanticize the traditional tribal healing process. We want that tribal wisdom should be recognised on par with homeopathy, allopathy and unani forms of medicine.”

The workshop, which was being organised by the Orissa Development Action Forum (ODAF) in association with IGRMS, would take a close look at issues such as patronisation of the practices, scientific study of the healing process, developing directory of tribal healers and establishing tribal medicine outlets.

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