Have a great article or blog to share?

Death of patient discharged on request, lynching of healers highlight healthcare gaps in Gadchiroli

Some cases of witch-hunting in the tribal pockets of Maharashtra appear to be linked to a term for patients in medical records — DOR, short for ‘discharged on request’.

Doctors and other medical staff at primary health centres and hospitals in Gadchiroli, one of the State’s most underdeveloped districts, which borders Chhattisgarh and Telangana, say they are often compelled to discharge patients on request before their treatment is completed.

The death of one such patient, three-year-old Arohi Bandu Telami, and alleged lynching of two traditional healers accused of casting a lethal spell on her with a bahuli (voodoo doll) have put the spotlight on DOR and the alleged tendency of some patients to slip away from hospitals.

Arohi was discharged from the Sub-District Hospital in Aheri, about 45 km from her forest fringe village, Barsewada, at 1 p.m. on April 27. Her discharge report, marked ‘NRC/DOR’, said she was suffering from severe acute malnutrition (SAM). The girl had been admitted to the hospital’s paediatric intensive care unit on April 11 and later shifted to the Nutrition Rehabilitation Centre (NRC).

“The doctors said she would get well in 15 days. When she did not recover, my wife and I decided to take her home as we could no longer afford her food and lodging,” Arohi’s father, Bandu Telami, said.

“Discharge against medical advice is common among the tribal people here. They leave the hospital quietly if we dissuade or refuse to discharge them. In such cases, we end up lodging missing person complaints at the local police station,” one of the nurses said, declining to be named.

Officials at the police station indicated that the names of the patients missing from hospitals remain mere entries in their registers. They underlined the futility of trying to bring them back for treatment, let alone locate them.

The hospital authorities said scores of patients have been marked DOR or missing over the years, but there are no data on how many of those discharged or taken out in a critical condition survived, often under the care of herbalists or traditional healers. Some healers or vaidyas pay with their lives if their treatment fails.

The spot where two traditional healers accused of casting a lethal spell on the girl were burnt alive in Barsewada village, Gadchiroli district, Maharashtra.

The spot where two traditional healers accused of casting a lethal spell on the girl were burnt alive in Barsewada village, Gadchiroli district, Maharashtra.
| Photo Credit:
EMMANUAL YOGINI

Falling back on healers

Barsewada, on the periphery of the Sundernagar Reserve Forest, is 42 km from Gatta and about 100 km from Gadchiroli, the district headquarters. The village is home to about 130 families of Gonds that along with Madias, Pardhans, and Kolams comprise the bulk of the 4.15 lakh Scheduled Tribes that constitute 38.17% of the population in the district.

Soon after taking Arohi out of the hospital in Aheri, her parents fell back on local healers and placed her under the care of three of them: Jamni Devaji Telami, 52, Devu Katya Aatlami, 57, and Amit Madavi.

Arohi was a member of the Gond community, as were Jamni and Aatlami. The girl’s death on May 1 at her house fuelled outrage among the villagers. They allegedly burnt the two healers to death after a kangaroo court accused them of practising black magic on the girl and killing her. The third healer, Madavi, managed to escape. He was luckier than Donga Kokusi Joi, 70, of Gatta (Jambiya) village, also accused of killing a person under treatment through witchcraft in April. Tied to a pole for his ‘crime’, Joi survived two days of torture, which included being scalded with a hot iron rod. Twenty people were booked in the attempt to murder case.

On charges of murdering Jamni and Aatlami, 16 residents of Barsewada were arrested and booked under the Maharashtra Prevention and Eradication of Human Sacrifice and Other Inhuman, Evil and Aghori Practices, and Black Magic Act, 2013.

Sachin Madavi, Assistant Social Commissioner of Gadchiroli, said compensation has been sought for the victims’ families.

Poor access to healthcare

Officials and anti-superstition activists say failure to cure patients is one of the reasons behind people being maimed or killed after being branded as witches; family dispute — among the 16 arrested were Jamni’s husband and elder son – is another.

“At times, rivalry among pujaris (another term for healers) also creates problems within the local community,” Neelotpal, Gadchiroli Superintendent of Police, said.

A report from the district’s Social Welfare Department to the Commissioner of Social Welfare, and the Secretary of the Social Justice and Special Assistance Department identified superstition and black magic as the causes for Arohi’s death. It did not mention malnutrition or “severe anaemia” that she was diagnosed with when she was wheeled into the rural hospital at Ettapalli before being referred to the hospital in Aheri.

Ettapalli is about 8 km from Barsewada, not an easy distance to cover for the economically challenged tribal people in the district’s interiors. A better-equipped public health centre at Todsa is much further away.

Rishikesh Idpate, a doctor at the rural hospital in Ettapalli, said they tried to stabilise the condition of Arohi. “She needed at least two units of blood. We referred her to the Aheri hospital 36 km away as we do not have a blood bank here,” he said.

The tribal villages are, however, far more accessible than a decade ago when Naxals wielded command in these areas, members of the non-profit, Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti (MANS), said. The organisation was founded by Narendra Dabholkar, a physician and anti-superstition crusader who was gunned down in August 2013.

Rambhau Dongare of MANS, who is based in Nagpur, said the members of the group organise street plays and awareness workshops every weekend to combat superstitious practices and trickery employed by many healers.

Doctors and other health workers say they go beyond their official routine to volunteer for outreach programmes, but staff shortage and poor healthcare facilities often undo their efforts, occasionally resulting in DOR and associated deaths.

Source link

Share it :

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.