Prakruti
The Adivasi Academy stepped into the area of tribal health in the year 2001 with
the aim of studying and addressing the incidence of sickle-cell anaemia among the
tribal community in Chhotaudepur district. In the process, the team’s attention
was drawn to other health care problems among the village communities. Bhasha Centre
thus set up the Prakriti Health Centre on its campus at the Adivasi Academy.
Prakriti is active in the Chhotaudepur district of Gujarat, with patients coming
in even from the neighbouring villages of Madhya Pradesh. Prakriti has a fully established
clinic with all basic amenities. The Centre has its own ambulance donated by Mahindra
and Mahindra which is utilised for extending health services in remote rural areas
and a basic laboratory. The centre remains obtains generic, rational drugs at subsidised
rates from Low Cost Standard Therapeutics. PrakritiOPDs on Sundays are led by Dr.
Kiran N. Shinglot and Dr. Jayshree Rao.
The Centre focuses on providing qualitative and sustained health care aid to the
tribal/rural population in the area. It covers both preventive and curative health.
The Centre carries out health surveys, provides treatment to patients visiting the
clinic, organizes health camps in villages, conducts health awareness campaigns,
carries out grassroots sensitization programmes and builds community capacity to
promote well-being.
Prakriti makes available scientific medical care to the local population. A distinctive
feature of the Prakriti programme is its endeavour to understand the tribal view
of well-being which includes their perspective of the body, relationship with nature,
traditions and rituals, philosophy of life and death and social and cultural practices.
Thus, while Prakriti follows the modern/allopathic medicine, it does not negate
the tribal way of scientific healing. Prakriti’s offers medical cure for critical
illnesses through allopathy and encourages traditional practices for illnesses which
have a definite and assured cure in tribal society. Earlier, the centre ran a ‘Certificate
Program in Rural Health Worker Training’ for a decade that was quite popular with
Adivasi girls. In later years, the Adivasi Academy sent its trainees to Muni Sewa
Ashram for pursuing a specialised course in nursing. With the health sector expanding
in rural areas, several of the trainees found placement as para-medical support
staff in rural areas.
Prakriti also collaborates with other organisations for camps and health studies.
In 2014, Prakriti carried out for UNICEF, a six month research study on "Tribal
Perspective of Wellness to Develop Strategies for Enhancing Access to Immunization
Programmes and Promoting Wellness among Tribal/Nomadic Communities in Sabarkantha
and Dahod Districts of Gujarat". The study brought forth the gaps between tribal
health practices/needs and the government delivery with the aim to improve healthcare
access and delivery in Adivasi areas.
The presence of Prakriti Health Centre has brought awareness of health rights among
the local community leading to a rising demand of qualitative health services. This
has led to a general improvement in government health infrastructure in the area
as well delivery of health services. The Prakriti Healthcare Centre covers healthcare
for tribal and rural residents from the Chhotaudepur district and neighbouring villages
on the border between Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. Each year the centre covers about
5000 to 7000 individuals, ie impacting nearly 30,000 to 35,000 persons across households.