A few days ago, in Madhya Pradesh’s Shahdol district, two infant girls with pneumonia died. The girls, belonging to the Kol tribe, were allegedly subjected to a faith healing practice called ‘Daagna’ (poking with hot iron rods to cure the illness). These shocking incidents have raised a range of questions. They point to a major challenge faced by the Indian healthcare system in an age when the health sector is getting beefed up with technologies like telemedicine and more effective drugs.
Two women faith healers have been booked in the case, where one infant was poked with a hot iron rod 51 times while the other was poked 24 times. The first died in a government hospital on February 1 and the second died at a private hospital on February 4. The district health authorities initiated action against some permanent and contractual health department staff, ranging from issuing show cause notices to removal from posts over dereliction of duty for failing to prevent the incidents. But will such action halt these practices? Moreover, will it discourage people from taking to faith healing? For one, centuries-old “cures”, linked to rituals and ceremonies, are embedded in people’s mindsets. Hence the demand leads to continued supply from faith healers.
While such practices may have a placebo effect by making patients “feel better”, they cannot cure cancers, severe viral infections like Covid-19, pneumonia (as in these two cases), or a whole range of diseases. Faith healing could more likely than not do more harm than good. There is reluctance among many young doctors to move to rural areas to practice medicine. High medical education costs discourage young doctors from moving to rural areas, making them prefer urban hospitals for larger incomes to help them repay running loans earlier taken for their professional education. The all-India average doctor-population ratio is nearly 1:1800 against the World Health Organisation (WHO)-recommended 1:1000. It is worse in the rural areas. The lack of adequate access to scientific healthcare and intense faith in these practices in rural areas encourage the persistence of these forms of “treatment”.
What is urgently needed is for awareness to be raised across rural India to dislodge such beliefs and convince misguided minds to trust tried-and-tested, medically proven cures and treatments for diseases and illnesses. It is time we realised that faith healing practices could potentially claim or maim lives.
