Tribals Get An Innovative Healthcare Delivery In Telemedicine

Jan 25, 2022

Despite tremendous advances in modern science, technology and allopathic medicine, we are unable to provide quality healthcare to all. Traditional medicine, particularly herbal medicine, is regarded as a major source of healthcare, particularly in rural and remote areas. A large number of people rely on such medicine for their primary care. Traditional Indian medicine or medicinal plants are also regarded as a vital source for new drugs, therefore, the integration of such medicine is critical for the people.

Several steps have been taken in India to promote and integrate such medicine into clinical practice. Similarly, the Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA) is also working towards integrating the role of traditional healers with mainstream modern medicine to bring these practices to the forefront. To facilitate the process, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Jodhpur has been identified as a Tribal Health Centre of Excellence (CoE) by MoTA.

AIIMS Jodhpur is perhaps the first AIIMS in the country to reach out to tribals in remote and inaccessible areas of district Sirohi; this initiative also includes tele-consultation services at tribal-dominated community health centres (CHC) in Rajasthan. The institute, which began with tribal healers, is now involved in locating, recording, and reporting on excellent tribal healer practises in Rajasthan's aspirational Sirohi area. Their progress has been steady, from exploring medicine and healing methods in the hinterlands to developing evidence-based techniques to help the country achieve its goal of 'Farm to Pharma.'

Under this project until now, the CoE has managed to meet more than 513 tribal/traditional healers (commonly called as Bhopa in the state of Rajasthan) across 153 villages in three blocks (TSP Zones) of district Sirohi, uncovering their traditional medicinal knowledge for scientific documentation and analysis of its application; it also recorded tribal healer’s knowledge, attitude and practices for coronavirus disease (COVID-19). They also conducted various surveys among the tribal population and collected their demographic and socio economic data to record, analyse, understand and make future road maps for taking this work to the other seven tribal districts of the state of Rajasthan. To date, 989 tribal people have been surveyed as part of this project.