Infant Healthcare in Maharashtra’s Hinterland – Debunking the Myths, Superstitions & Malpractices - Dr.Sonal P Maste, Director, IHMA School of Homoeopathy, Mumbai

While India makes impressive strides in areas of technology, services, infrastructure and other global metrics of development, the same cannot be said about holistic development of the country. Critical areas of progress like education, healthcare and hygiene are seeing development at a snail’s pace. Initiatives are being taken by the government; however they are either inadequately executed or ineffective. One area, I would like to touch upon today is the Infant Healthcare, especially in Maharashtra.

I have been trying to study the reasons behind the high Infant Mortality, the associated myths, superstitions, the lack of medical infrastructure and most importantly associated malpractices. Infant mortality is higher in the village and the tribal areas of Maharashtra compared to the urban centres. This happens mostly due to paucity of adequate healthcare facilities, medical aids, low education levels and mostly fuelled by lack of awareness about hygiene, health, medication. Such an environment becomes a breeding ground for major superstitions and malpractices in the healthcare. The number of superstitions and blind beliefs in India is very large as the Indian society is made of people belonging to various religious, cultural, ethnic, linguistic and racial groups.

Key Factors affecting Mortality rate

Societal Misconceptions

·         No roads, hence commuting are difficult, lack of education among people about medical and health. Even if the medical aids are available people will prefer to go to traditional healers who perform the so-called "tantra-mantra", “jadu-tona" and other orthodox treatments.

·         ‎They believe all the disease caused by Gods curse and tend to fall in the misbelief and superstition.

·         There are several areas in Maharashtra where the tribal population is spread. Some parts of Khandesh, Marathwada, Kankan, Vidarbha which include Dhule, Nandurbar, Nanded, Raigarh, Thane, Pune, Nasik, Ahmednagar, Garchiroli and Chandrapur. All these above districts have tribal population which still believes in these superstitions.

Common Myths in Villages and Tribal areas

·         As we all know that first days milk from the mother is very important for the new-born, but a common myth amongst these people is to keep their babies without milk for 3 days and just give sugar water. What is more alarming is that the mothers’ milk colostrum) is assumed to be impure and is thus squeezed and thrown away.

·         ‎Infants are also given gold or silver in raw form assuming that it will strengthen the immunity.

·         When an infant suffers from pneumonia or cough, it is subjected to homespun remedies by traditional healers, including branding by hot nails or glass bangles. And application of sticky hot juice on the chest assuming it will give warmth feeling and the disease will be cured.

·         People give pigeon's blood to the infants assuming it will make the bone strong and healthy. On the contrary it has a major adverse effect on their digestive track. They are not able to digest it well and thus suffer from various GIT disorders.

·         To treat the Infants of snake and scorpion bite is very common in the tribal population. They take the infants to a person who performs rituals, the so called "tantra-mantra" “jadoo tona” and assuming that the poison effect will reduce as a result. They go to the extent of worshiping the snakes and believe that giving milk to the snakes will be a cure for their infants. Just imagine the irony, the Infants are devoid of milk and suffer malnutrition but the snakes get the milk.

·         When the infants’ start crawling, they fall many times and get hurt. The villagers believe that soil is cure for the same. They put soil on the wound instead of putting antiseptic lotions assuming that the soil has all medicine which can heal the wound. They end up infecting the wounds with more germs and create a bigger problem.

·         ‎People believe many things that a new mother should not do or better not do. The first 45 days after the birth of the child is a time in which the mother is not allowed to enter the kitchen. She stays in one room and eats and sleep there. Just like in the time of menstruation, this time after childbirth is a time in which she is ‘impure’. This woman just gave birth to a new child on this earth, this is the biggest miracle of nature itself, that life comes from the womb of a woman – and she is called impure? Of course it is right that she does not have to do the cooking and cleaning in that time, she needs time to rest! But confining her to this one room means that she won’t really get space to walk around, which is necessary for a quick recovery.

·         In the Villages near Palghar and Saphale, there are people who are believers of “Bhagats (Traditional Healers) the ones who perform “Tantra-Mantra” as there is no medical facility available in the area. There is a trust called as Astha Trust. They have appointed an allopathic doctor who attends to the patients only once a week and gives medicines to the patients. For the rest of the time the people visit the traditional healers. The treatments done by the traditional healers are – they treat toothache and caries by making them chew roots of some plant, which sometimes becomes harmful to the gums. Treatment of Jaundice is done by making burn marks on the hand with hot iron rods and for treatment of snake or scorpion bite, they tie a tourniquet just above the site of the bite and they take the patient to the traditional healers.

These superstitions and malpractices are obviously driven by vested interests. They have a commercial interest in the continuance. The shameful and cowardly act, murder of rationalist and anti-black magic campaigner Narendra Dabholkar is a proof of the same.

The repercussions of these malpractices and superstitions are causing a huge damage to the society as a whole. There is a drastic need for eradicating them. A solution must be found for these. We see the following solutions for these issues:

1.    Educate the people about the need for formal healthcare and take steps towards eradicating these malpractices.

2.    Education of women related to the breast feeding and weaning diets for infants.

3.    Create awareness for the need of first aid methods in all situations.

4.    Reduce the mind-block in people’s mind about visiting the doctor.

5.    Present cases on the ill-effects of the methods offered by the traditional healers.

6.    Educate the people about the scientific and proven system of medicines like Allopathy, Homoeopathy and Ayurveda.

Homoeopathy offers a great alternative for the shortage of healthcare in these areas. Homoeopathic practitioners can run the healthcare programs, treat patients and educate the patients about the hazards of these malpractices and superstitions.