Letter from Ganiyari.

ABSTRACT

The forest is called Achanakmar. For non-Hindi-speaking friends, this would roughly translate into ‘being struck, suddenly’. Can you think of a name more theatrical, formidable? I am not sure how many in or around the forest have been ‘struck’ by animals from this wildlife sanctuary. Close by, in the gentler surrounds of Ganiyari, Chhattisgarh; the tribal Baigas, Gonds, Abhuj Maria and many others are being struck with far more regularity and finality by something else. We would like to believe that what is striking them is disease; in some ways it is. Yet, what is truly striking them, I believe, is poverty. And apathy. This is a remote, rural, neglected region of India, which is difficult to reach and impossible to remember once one arrives in New Delhi and gets consumed by the more important and urgent calls of life. The local population is chronically malnourished. Life is hard and regular employment difficult to come by. Many families carry the toll of alcoholism. The favoured spirits are derived locally from the Mahua tree. Men and women are equally afflicted. Families often tend to be large with five or more children not being unusual. If under such circumstances, disease strikes, the blow can be fatal. Diseases are rampant. Tuberculosis and diabetes may be the star attractions but anaemia, infections, infestations, deficiency syndromes, sickle cell disease, bites, stings and every other disease one can think of, jostle for attention. If one looks around for the available public healthcare for the indigenous population, one is not surprised. There is almost nothing. These people do not matter and we are too busy and important to be bothered about them. So people continue to fall sick, suffer and die. God forbid, they show a little spunk and try getting treatment in one of the private clinics or hospitals at the nearby Bilaspur or the slightly further Raipur. There is a high likelihood of them then falling into an endless spiral of debt from which they might never recover. Enter Jan Swasthya Sahyog or JSS (Fig. 1). Each word in this name is meaningful. A few bold, committed and extremely unusual doctors initiated the project more than a decade ago. Spend a few days at JSS and what impresses you is how rooted the idea is in the local community and how organically the community connects with it. Each one is an equal stakeholder. Taking one person’s name here would mean disrespecting the hundreds of others. The founder doctors had the audacity to not only conceive such a project but have also dedicated their lives bringing their vision to fruition. The community in its response surpasses my