A REPORT: (Local Health Culture and Traditions in the Context of Primary Health Care)

A 7 day meeting to discuss ways for strengthening local health traditions related to primary health care was held from 24 – 30 th Nov. 1985 at Academy of Development Science, Kashele Village, Karjat Taluka in Maharashtra. 92 persons, representing 30 rural organizations interested and active in the community health field from eight states (Viz. and Maharashtra) attended the meeting. The common experience which brought all these groups together was their observation of the wide spread existence of health traditions, in village communities, all over India. These are primarily based on the use of local flora, fauna and minerals and self – reliant with autonomous character rooted in the community's social traditions of knowledge and supported within the community. Most of the groups previously carried the prejudiced impression that local health cultures were based on blind belief or purely empirical experience because this is the false propaganda that western science had spread about indigenous knowledge. In fact, to date not a single serious evaluation exists of the strengths and weaknesses of any local health culture in any part of India, despite the fact that millions of Indian still subscribe to traditional health practices. There is evidence to establish that Ayurvedic is the scientific mainstream behind all the local folk and tribal health traditions in India. There appears to be a symbiotic relationship between the two. The main stream drawing strength from the particular 'experiences' of numerous local streams and the local streams in turn being enriched through interaction with the mainstream. Some criticism were expressed about the way the institutionalized Ayurvedic establishment functions today and also in the recent past when it had alienated itself from the folk traditions. It was felt that very genuine and socially sensitive Ayurvedic scientists would be needed to contribute to the challenging task of strengthening local health cultures. The meeting observed that a sort of cultural genocide (which began about 200 years ago) on the local health culture of thousands of village communities is yet taking place in independent India. This is inspired by the western ethno – centric outlook of the Indian scientific establishment. Ironically it was noted that although local health traditions are in fact more comprehensive in scope and cover all and more than the usual elements that are expected from 'primary health care' programmes of the Government, these local traditions are being totally ignored and suppressed. It was observed that …