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 a 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. The centre remains obtains generic, rational drugs at subsidised rates from Low Cost Standard Therapeutics. Prakriti’s team comprising both visiting and resident doctors, includes Dr. Kiran N. Shinglot, Dr. Arvind Pratap, Dr. Jayshree Rao and Dr. Shakuntala Joshi.

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.

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 caused 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.