ABSTRACT
The tribals have their own mechanisms of treating and curing diseases. Various traditional healing practices among community members dating from an earlier time have been greatly useful to these communities since the mainstream healthcare system was not accessible in their areas. The traditional healthcare practices were constructed keeping in mind local, social, economic and ecological conditions best suited to the livelihoods, cultures and accessibility of resources in context to local tribal communities. They had maintained no difference between its practitioners and users in social and economic terms. The processes of exclusion of tribal traditional health practices have been strongly confirmed in the name of inclusive health practices in modern India. With the establishment of the modern nation-state, all efforts were made by the state and other stakeholders to modernise and homogenise in the field of health and disease management. It resulted in the establishment of Primary Health Centres (PHC) and Community Health Centres (CHC) in tribal areas. These health institutions were meant to be inclusive spaces and had hoped to deliver treatment across all spheres in society. As the study observes, as a result of establishment of these institutions, the traditional system was no longer there to help them and the modern system was at a distant place to the tribals. The present chapter examines the issues of health and disease management practices particularly among Gonds. This chapter establishes the importance of traditional or local healthcare practices by providing evidences from various already existing literature. The dichotomy of inclusion and exclusion of healing the tribal ill health has been presented in the chapter with an empirical evidence from Pathai village of Shahpur Development Block of Betul district of Madhya Pradesh. This chapter also provides certain suggestions in order to ensure genuinely inclusive health management for tribal masses.
