Day #8: (Not) Testing, Not patronizing Traditional Medicine
27th March 2020: The world is screaming to us asking us to test more rigorously, while we are still getting organized with our testing kits (or lack of it), criteria for testing, challenges of people movement, inability to lock down and decide on what is the best course of action moving forward.
1. What ails our capacity to test
2. An encounter with the traditional knowledge permeating and
3. Petition by the Traditional Knowledge practitioners
1. What ails our capacity to test: We don't have enough testing kits. A friend told me couple of days ago that the State of Punjab that had over 90,000 people coming from abroad who need to be traced and tested, the state has hardly a few hundred testing kits with them currently. We have been slow in getting the testing kits organized and we can only hope that the rigorous testing that is necessary for the identification, isolation and care for the patients that needs to be done as a priority is already not way too late in India. Overall India is testing 10.5 patients out of every million according to a news report, this is abysmal and eventually will negate the lock down purpose completely.
Tamilnadu for instance with a population of almost 7 crores (or 70 million), has only tested less than 1200 samples (not people) and reports a total no. that looks very small and contained. Reality remains that unless everyone is tested and cleared, we will never really 'get back' to a normal. The reports of how we delayed banning the export of personal protective gear for the medical professionals and don't even have the basic for them currently across the country are making rounds since couple of days now. Some people seem to have placed profits over the health for the population.
2. An encounter with the traditional knowledge in society: Being in self-imposed social distancing and working from home for more than 10 days now, I had stepped out to the multi-purpose potti-kadai (also called kirana shop in northern India) or local shop, about 200 mts from my housing complex. The shop front was barricaded with three masked assistants attending to the customers from the other side of the barricade. The shop front had chalk marked circles in which one customer at a time was made to stand and there was an attempt to draw more circles with a distance of 1.5 mts (as prescribed) that had been rubbed off with winds and movement. There was only one customer ahead of me and as i was awaiting my turn to step into the circle after he left, there was a rush and a bright looking lady from the next door stepped out to ask the shop assistant for some flour, he chided her for stepping out without a mask. While he stepped into the shop for fetching what she asked, she turned and like she had discovered almost for the first time looked at the tree in front of the shop. "isin't it the nochi tree?" she asked to no one in particular and when one of the assistants (who meanwhile was starting to address my needs) said, "yes", she continued, "you know what, i heard from the hospital staff that if you can rub your body with the nochi leaf when you step out, nothing will infect you! i swear that is what they said", she repeated as she quickly grabbed the flour bag. The young assistant who was serving her replied, "fine, if you want you take some leaves, but, don't share this with others, the poor tree will be bereft of all leaves in no time!" he exclaimed.
I know that nochi does have medicinal properties and often is used in the traditional system of medicine, though not sure about her claims. But, what amazed me was that someone somewhere has these nuggets of traditional knowledge that is shared with others in such times and people do discover the value of plants and trees and herbs that they have always passed by. Necessity moves people to traditional knowledge.
In the last several years, I have seen the village women from across the state of tamilnadu express similar wonderment at the herbs around us. We are only a generation or two away from the traditional medicinal knowledge and herbs property being widely known in villages. When such village people encounter the herbal knowledge, their first response has always been, "wow! i know this", "i have heard of this from my grand parent", etc., Modern economic necessity has health care organized as a "system" of knowledge that needs to be regulated heavily and for the profit of the "industry".
Across India these days, people are calling each other and sharing these traditional medicine recipes, even if they are not aware of anyone using the remedy they propose. The way people readily have faith and share is promising, the lack of clarity in knowledge is the challenge. The lack of State patronage for the traditional system of medicine is a biggest challenge.
3. Petition by the Traditional Knowledge practitioners: Some traditional medicine practitioners have created an online petition that requests the government to take them seriously. You can also sign the petition online.
1. What ails our capacity to test
2. An encounter with the traditional knowledge permeating and
3. Petition by the Traditional Knowledge practitioners
1. What ails our capacity to test: We don't have enough testing kits. A friend told me couple of days ago that the State of Punjab that had over 90,000 people coming from abroad who need to be traced and tested, the state has hardly a few hundred testing kits with them currently. We have been slow in getting the testing kits organized and we can only hope that the rigorous testing that is necessary for the identification, isolation and care for the patients that needs to be done as a priority is already not way too late in India. Overall India is testing 10.5 patients out of every million according to a news report, this is abysmal and eventually will negate the lock down purpose completely.
Tamilnadu for instance with a population of almost 7 crores (or 70 million), has only tested less than 1200 samples (not people) and reports a total no. that looks very small and contained. Reality remains that unless everyone is tested and cleared, we will never really 'get back' to a normal. The reports of how we delayed banning the export of personal protective gear for the medical professionals and don't even have the basic for them currently across the country are making rounds since couple of days now. Some people seem to have placed profits over the health for the population.
2. An encounter with the traditional knowledge in society: Being in self-imposed social distancing and working from home for more than 10 days now, I had stepped out to the multi-purpose potti-kadai (also called kirana shop in northern India) or local shop, about 200 mts from my housing complex. The shop front was barricaded with three masked assistants attending to the customers from the other side of the barricade. The shop front had chalk marked circles in which one customer at a time was made to stand and there was an attempt to draw more circles with a distance of 1.5 mts (as prescribed) that had been rubbed off with winds and movement. There was only one customer ahead of me and as i was awaiting my turn to step into the circle after he left, there was a rush and a bright looking lady from the next door stepped out to ask the shop assistant for some flour, he chided her for stepping out without a mask. While he stepped into the shop for fetching what she asked, she turned and like she had discovered almost for the first time looked at the tree in front of the shop. "isin't it the nochi tree?" she asked to no one in particular and when one of the assistants (who meanwhile was starting to address my needs) said, "yes", she continued, "you know what, i heard from the hospital staff that if you can rub your body with the nochi leaf when you step out, nothing will infect you! i swear that is what they said", she repeated as she quickly grabbed the flour bag. The young assistant who was serving her replied, "fine, if you want you take some leaves, but, don't share this with others, the poor tree will be bereft of all leaves in no time!" he exclaimed.
I know that nochi does have medicinal properties and often is used in the traditional system of medicine, though not sure about her claims. But, what amazed me was that someone somewhere has these nuggets of traditional knowledge that is shared with others in such times and people do discover the value of plants and trees and herbs that they have always passed by. Necessity moves people to traditional knowledge.
In the last several years, I have seen the village women from across the state of tamilnadu express similar wonderment at the herbs around us. We are only a generation or two away from the traditional medicinal knowledge and herbs property being widely known in villages. When such village people encounter the herbal knowledge, their first response has always been, "wow! i know this", "i have heard of this from my grand parent", etc., Modern economic necessity has health care organized as a "system" of knowledge that needs to be regulated heavily and for the profit of the "industry".
Across India these days, people are calling each other and sharing these traditional medicine recipes, even if they are not aware of anyone using the remedy they propose. The way people readily have faith and share is promising, the lack of clarity in knowledge is the challenge. The lack of State patronage for the traditional system of medicine is a biggest challenge.
3. Petition by the Traditional Knowledge practitioners: Some traditional medicine practitioners have created an online petition that requests the government to take them seriously. You can also sign the petition online.
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