Practice of indigenous medicine in CHT
Friday, 11 July 2008
Niaz Ahmed Khan and A.Z.M. Manzoor Rashid
THE knowledge and wisdom, which underpin the practice of Baidya, are mostly passed on from one generation to the other. Baidyas provide two broad categories of services: (a) plant-based (curative and preventive) treatment and healing (kabiraji); and (b) spiritual and sacred ceremonies (tontra-montro).
Nine (out of 30) Baidyas maintain a reasonable stock of the major medicinal plants and herbs in and around their homestead premises. The family members especially the women typically look after these plantations. Only 3 respondents have specialised chamber for attending to the patients. The other does not have any special provision or formal arrangement, except for small wooden boxes to store the basic equipment and raw materials for the practice. Most Baidyas collect raw materials from local bazaars, namely, Balaghata bazar, Sualok, Bandarban sadar. For more widely used materials, Baidyas occasionally approach intermediate agents or middlemen or city-based wholesalers. There are a few medicine shops in the Chittagong city, which deal in herbal and medicinal plants.
It is difficult to determine Baidyas' income. Their income varies substantially and shows seasonal fluctuations (e.g. winter is often a busy time for the Baidyas in handling cases of mental disorder; high monsoon for water-borne diseases). A good number of respondents expressed their unwillingness to discuss anything about their earnings. Besides, for nearly two thirds of the respondents, the practice of Baidya is not the only source of livelihood. They typically rely on such supplementary sources of income as small business (e.g. grocery shops), collection of non-timber forest products (bamboo, fuel wood, sun grass, honey etc.), and livestock (especially pigs) rearing, sharecropping, and wage labour. The highest and lowest incomes from the practice of Baidya, as reported by the respondents (who agreed to share the information), are Tk. 1400 and Tk. 6,000.
Drawing on the respondents' comments and responses, the following major problems and challenges concerning the practice of Baidya may be identified:
THE knowledge and wisdom, which underpin the practice of Baidya, are mostly passed on from one generation to the other. Baidyas provide two broad categories of services: (a) plant-based (curative and preventive) treatment and healing (kabiraji); and (b) spiritual and sacred ceremonies (tontra-montro).
Nine (out of 30) Baidyas maintain a reasonable stock of the major medicinal plants and herbs in and around their homestead premises. The family members especially the women typically look after these plantations. Only 3 respondents have specialised chamber for attending to the patients. The other does not have any special provision or formal arrangement, except for small wooden boxes to store the basic equipment and raw materials for the practice. Most Baidyas collect raw materials from local bazaars, namely, Balaghata bazar, Sualok, Bandarban sadar. For more widely used materials, Baidyas occasionally approach intermediate agents or middlemen or city-based wholesalers. There are a few medicine shops in the Chittagong city, which deal in herbal and medicinal plants.
It is difficult to determine Baidyas' income. Their income varies substantially and shows seasonal fluctuations (e.g. winter is often a busy time for the Baidyas in handling cases of mental disorder; high monsoon for water-borne diseases). A good number of respondents expressed their unwillingness to discuss anything about their earnings. Besides, for nearly two thirds of the respondents, the practice of Baidya is not the only source of livelihood. They typically rely on such supplementary sources of income as small business (e.g. grocery shops), collection of non-timber forest products (bamboo, fuel wood, sun grass, honey etc.), and livestock (especially pigs) rearing, sharecropping, and wage labour. The highest and lowest incomes from the practice of Baidya, as reported by the respondents (who agreed to share the information), are Tk. 1400 and Tk. 6,000.
Drawing on the respondents' comments and responses, the following major problems and challenges concerning the practice of Baidya may be identified: