ANNUAL REPORT, 2006

We are gearing ourselves towards finishing this project by June, this year, and submitting reports by September. Our project review is scheduled for June, 2006. The project period has been very intensive, involving study and field work. Here, we are presenting a brief report of this work.

Review of Literature: We have visited various libraries (in Bangalore, New Delhi) and collected extensive materials on the role of traditional healing practices in the field of health and well-being. A trip to the South Asia Institute, Karl Ruprecht University, Heidelberg, Germany, was undertaken for the purpose of reviewing anthropological literature on traditional healing practices in South Asia and for exchange of ideas about our project. The materials have been collected from international journals, books, training materials and reports. These are now housed in the CAMH library.

Based on extensive study of these materials, review papers are being written up for discussion and publication. A paper was presented at the “Second International Conference on Religions and Cultures in the Indic Civilisation”, held in Delhi in December 2005. A paper was also presented at our photo-exhibition on “Faith healing: Going beyond medicine”, held in Pune in January, 2006, a report of which may be found at our website.

Data Collection: During the project period, data was collected from 21 THCs in 9 districts of Maharashtra: Pune, Satara, Sangli, Kohlapur, Solapur, Ahmednagar, Nashik, Mumbai (Raigad) and Buldhana. Data was collected in the following format:

Cleaning up of data, data entry, translations and logging in of various data was completed with reference to the 21 traditional healing centers. This activity included:

Other activities: A film festival, “Reel Madness” was held in December, 2004, at the National Film Archives of India, Pune, in collaboration with Open Spaces. The report of the film festival may be found in these web pages. The film festival juxtaposed modern institutions with traditional institutions, and set up panel discussions critically looking at mental health and institutions from a political perspective.

A photo-exhibition was held on “Faith healing: Going beyond medicine” in January, 2006, at Bal Gandharv, Pune. A report of the exhibition may be found in these web pages. A seminar on Traditional healing was held on the 13th of January, followed by 2 days of the photo-exhibition.

Community Publication: As a part of our data sharing activities, drafts of the community publication on traditional healing are being finalised. The publication will be out by the end of the project period.

Developing Alternative Mental Health Resources in Pune city (AMH): Bapu Trust is trying to create awareness about alternative mental health practices in the community. Our field work has shown that traditional healing centers are the site for various alternative healing practices. We have found useful analogies between rituals used in traditional healing centers, and the new age healing practices, such as ritual practise, use of drums in healing, counselling, body therapy, trance meditations, etc.

Activities on AMH conducted include collecting resources on popular AMH practices in India (book abstracts, interviews with AMH practitioners, internet downloads, documentation of informative sessions by AMH practitioners at Bapu) and a bi-monthly interaction between AMH practitioners and interested members of the community. During the last year a resource dossier was built on the topic of Acupressure and Acupuncture and Mental Health, Nutrition and Mental Health. Three interactive sessions with AMH practitioners in the area of Homeopathy, Reiki and Hypnotherapy were held during the year. Work also was conducted on developing an e-newsletter, Paryayi on relevant issues in the area of AMH.

Impressions: Fieldwork in the various THCs has brought us into contact with the local population around the area. We have spoken freely about our project aims and objectives to many people who have come in contact with us.

During the course of the fieldwork, we had the opportunity of interacting informally with a wide range of groups including the THC authorities, users, carers, healers and service providers. All these interactions were very rich in terms of the exchange of perspectives and values. This provided us with much more insight into the various explanatory models prevalent among traditional healers and operative within the community.

The pathways to care that people take are complex. Many users have accessed various health centers before visiting the THC. People visiting THCs are typically users with health care problems whose problems have not been resolved by the health care system. Some users have many layers of health care problems and are trying everything possible, including THCs. Some users with severe mental disorder have wandered here and are living without support. But most users have reported feeling better after regular visits to the THCs.

The other striking fact is that communities have not conceptualized “mental health” as different from physical or social health. Many have reported a complex web of problems, prominent among them being mind/body problems such as headaches, fatigue, weakness, etc. Equally common were undefined mental health problems such as stress, tension, disturbed thoughts, lack of concentration, etc. Even those with a seeming severe mental disorder (e.g. reporting hallucinations) do not see themselves as having a “mental illness” problem.

Another evident fact is that people approaching THCs have expectations from the realm of gods and spirituality. And these expectations relate to their personal and family health, “peace of mind” and well being. Our data suggests that there is an elemental inter-connection between spiritual experiences and mental / emotional well-being. People access traditional healing centers, not only because they have exhausted all medical options, but also because they receive emotional / psychological / spiritual benefits not available to them in the mainstream medical systems. Our data suggests that even if every region of the state was dotted with mental health services, people with mental health problems would still access the THCs, because these places give them something that medical systems are not expected to and cannot give.

Our data also suggests that there are overtly gendered, political and social aspects to traditional healing which also need to be explored further.

We have also seen places of great squalor, where economic deprivation is strikingly evident. Such places become prey to criminal behaviour and exploitation of different sorts. Such places come with the sobering message that places of worship and healing, like any community space, are inhabited by the everyday follies of being human, at best, and by the dark and hurtful side of human consciousness, at worst.

Future plans: We are planning to hold 2 workshops with traditional healers in the Maharashtra region in the coming months. Our audio-visual footage is presently being converted into films that can be used for awareness, structured training as well as our advocacy. We also aim to bring out our research report by September, as well as our community publication. We are in the process of writing papers, and hopefully a full length manuscript, to mainstream our work in academic research.

Research team:
Dr Bhargavi Davar (Principal Investigator)
Deepra Dandekar (Senior co-ordinator)
Madhura Lohokare (Research co-ordinator)
Deepak Salunke (Field worker)

Other assistance:
Hari Lagad (Driver)
Vicky (Key informant)

Statistical support:
Uma Mahajan (Pune)

Project advisory:
Dr Mira Oke (SOHAM)
Dr PP Joglekar (Deccan College)
Dr Sharmila Rege (Dept of Sociology, University of Pune)
Dr Sadhana Natu (Modern College, Pune)