ABSTRACT
The Jeeva study investigated the role of Dais (traditional midwives) in four remote study sites in India (2011–15). At one of the sites, a hilly, deprived tribal area in Dhadgaon development block of Nandurbar district in Maharashtra, with a population of 10,021, a total of 108 Dais were found of whom a third were male. Over two and a half years the field team collected extensive data from community women, Dais and other providers of maternity care, including retrospective and prospective follow-up of births. The research included a series of in-depth interviews with 30 Dais (23 female, seven male). Amidst harsh environmental and socioeconomic conditions, with inadequate reach of primary health services and most childbirth happening in homes, the research teams explored the characteristics of the Dais, their worldview and way of giving childbirth care, a system in which a huarku often works in a jordi (pair) with a huarki (female Dai). We’ve briefly elaborated on the hands-on, medicinal and ritual aspects of their practices, including the limitations. The Dais’ accessibility and willingness to attend to a woman giving birth even at night or in poor weather, and the familiar comfort they afford her is a common characteristic. The huarku’s greater physical and social mobility, especially at night-time, gives them extra importance in such remote areas.
