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Honey bee publish details |
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Profile |
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| Title |
In Tune with Nature |
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Sitaben’s childhood was spent in Gana, a small village that is fifteen kilometres away from where she lives now. She has had little formal education. Her most important education happened while helping her father and two brothers prepare medicines, locating plants in the jungle, grinding and preparing the paste. The tradition of healing obviously runs in the family as her grandfather was also a practising vaid. Her inquisitive nature led her to keenly observe how different plants were employed to treat various diseases. Being the youngest child (the two elder sisters were already married and living with their husbands), she had the opportunity in early childhood to learn from her father and brothers. Young Sita successfully converted opportunity into reality. She even used to dispense medicines as a young girl when her brothers were not at home.
Sitaben got married at the age of sixteen to an illiterate tribal farmer named Lasiyabhai. Her husband has played an important role in her life, acting first as an agent of inspiration, then as a supporter and now as a student. Lasiyabhai gave two such serious scares to Sitaben that she was confirmed in her vocation. First, about fifteen years ago, he had a severe and persistent stomach problem. Sitaben’s grandfather and brothers treated him at that time and he recovered within a month. The lesson of this was not lost on Sitaben. So when, five years later, Lasiyabhai managed to fall off a tree and badly injured his hips, Sitaben collected the plants from the forest, prepared the medicines and treated him herself. Lasiyabhai helps Sitaben in her work in any way he can, often accompanying her on her plant-gathering expeditions. He is learning his wife’s art and treats patients when she is away.
They have two daughters and a son, all of whom are married. All the children have had at least primary education. The village does not have a higher secondary school. Her son has studied up to the second standard and is knowledgeable on the subject of plants. She owns 1.5 acres of unirrigated agricultural land where she grows 'nagli' (Eleusine coracana), rice, and pigeon pea. The black soil land is fertile but yields are uncertain. Rooted in traditional wisdom, she uses only indigenous agricultural inputs in her farming and not chemical pesticides or fertilisers. Cattle dung is a convenient fertiliser for her as she has two cows, two calves and two bullocks.
Sitaben relies exclusively on all that she saw and learnt in her childhood. She has developed a good database of various plants and their uses (it has been formally compiled by SRISTI). She dispenses medicine for jaundice, asthma, earache, diarrhoea, vomitting, urological and gynecological disorders, migraine, dog bite, cough and several other diseases. People come from far-off villages to be treated by her. The most common ailments are children’s fever and diarrhoea. Over time Sitaben has experimented and improved her skills. She says her medicines have no side effects. She does not charge any money from anyone. She feels that her work is sewa (dedicated service) which she must continue to do.
If a patient does not recover within eight days, she modifies the treatment. She prepares the same medicines as her grandfather and brothers used to but she is also aware of alternative remedies for the same disease. She frequently cites the example of Sumanben. An axe fell on Sumanben’s foot while she was cutting wood in the forest and left a deep wound. The forest officials immediately took her to the hospital. However, the wound did not heal. Then Sumanben left the hospital and approached Sitaben. She treated the wound with the bark of a plant and the wound healed within ten days.
Some plants are found only four or five kilometres deep into the forest. Sometimes her son or husband accompanies her but often she goes alone. Monsoon is usually the time when the maximum number of plants can be collected. But things are changing. Sitaben remarks, “Earlier we would get all the plants we needed within a radius of four to five kilometers. Now we have to go almost to Mahal, ten or twelve kilometres away.”
Sitaben has always lived near the forest and feels a strong bond with it. Like any good worker, Sitaben has a very intimate relationship with her tools, that is, plants. She says that some plants should be collected only in the morning and some only in the evening. She does her gathering once every week. She offers prayers before using any plant and she never throws any plant away.
SRISTI met Sitaben during the sixth shodhyatra in 2000, and has since gifted her a mixer, bottles, vessels and packing containers, to prepare and store medicines. SRISTI has also helped her to apply for funds through the Department for Science and Technology, New Delhi, under their Technopreneur Promotion Programme, the sanction for which is yet to come. Sitaben’s great desire now is to sustain and keep her traditional knowledge alive well into the
future. This is an undertaking in which the Honey Bee Network is an active participant. |
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| Volume No. |
Honey Bee, 12(4):2-3, 2001 |
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