There’s an elderly couple who work at our farm land in a nearby village. My folks say that this couple had baby sitted me and all my two dozen cousins. And they have been doing so for the last four decades. Now for my nephews and nieces too. The daughter in law of this couple had recently had a miscarriage a few weeks ago and they had to rush to our town hospital. The young lady was discharged from the hospital after a few days and she went back to her village. There she contracted an infection in the cuperating wound.
Her in-laws thought that the operation in the town was a waste and that’s why the infection had set in a few days after she got discharged. Just see the irony. This time the elderly couple did not go to a doctor for their daughter in law. They went to an ojha baba (local village quack who looks like a ghost buster with his beard and drunken demeanor), who exorcises ghosts and evil spirit. That quack gave this young lady some local herbal medicine which aggravated her infection. When she cried, they would say, it’s the evil spirit crying. They beat the young lady black and blue giving an excuse that the evil spirit is being beaten out. Her condition was deteriorating but these folks thought that she is getting silent because the evil spirits are leaving her body.
When I was in town, the elderly couple from the village had come down to meet me. When I heard the story, I scolded them and said that this is weird and absurd and it is equivalent to killing that young lady in the village, infested with severe infection, beaten up and now silent because she does not want any more experiment on herself. So strong was their faith in their village quack that they politely said “my dear boy, you have moved to a big city but do not underestimate our revered village doctor !!” . What can be said in such cases? Just keep the mouth shut. Faith is stronger than the Medicine. There’s no point talking to them about Doctor on chat, doctor on phone.
For the last couple of months I wanted to write this post but did not get time to share it with the world. Sometimes I feel like shouting at these people but again have to give them the benefit of the doubt that they are illiterate, they are backward so may be their next generation will progress well and will not be carried away by such useless faith and belief. In these villages, death of a few babies and family members in a family is a common thing. Mother or the infant dying during child birth is a given thing and nobody even bothers about it. Life just goes on.
Any solution to handle such cases? Before they need healthcare, it seems they need some education or they will keep dying and nobody will even notice. We keep providing healthcare to the educated people from all over the world but we are helpless in cases like these where these poor and uneducated people don’t even need our help. Even bigger problem – they don’t even know what they need to do in such medical cases.
God. Give them some sanity.