More pictures
Sittilingi The south-eastern part of Harur taluk in Tamilnadu's Dharmapuri district is a valley surrounded by the Sitheri hills where 95 % of the people are tribals. This and an adjacent three valleys have 33 hamlets with a population of more than 22,000. Before our arrival here, there was no medical presence here. Tribals relied on their shamans and witch doctors as well as unqualified medicine men who came by from town on motorbikes to sell drugs and injections. The nearest hospital was at Harur, 48 kilometres from Sittilingi, with no surgical or emergency facilities. For surgeries and other emergencies, tribals had to walk several kilometres to catch the irregular bus to get to Salem, 120 kms away. A study done in 1987 found that 158 out of every 1000 babies born here died before their first birthday. Adults too frequently died of diarrhoeal dehydration a health situation that was at least 100 years back in time.
Tribal Home There are many misconceptions about tribals. The truth is they're much like other Indians. Tribal homes in Sittilingi are often huts with simple, spotlessly clean interiors.
Happy Kids These children are survivors. In and around Sittilingi, many children who would have been their age died before their first birthday. That doesn't happen any more thanks to THI's field work.
Malayali Tribal Girl Malayali is Tamil for "hill people" (not to be confused with the Malayalam-speaking people of neighboring Kerala). Most tribals in and around Sittilingi are Malayali, like this young woman who came to our hospital. They speak Tamil.
Pristine Land A view of Sittilingi. Nearly all the tribals are farmers and live off the land. The area is surrounded by hills and was, until recently, not easy to reach. The tribals live in this large valley as well as on the vast, forested hill-slopes.
Tribal Worship Living off the land, the tribals worship nature. These decorated stones symbolize primeval nature deities. Many tribal rituals here predate Hinduism.
Tribal Hospital, Sittilingi THI's hospital, completed in 1996, is unique to the area: 850 in-patients were treated here in 2003. Outpatients numbered 16,183.
The Operation Theatre Our surgery room must be among the simplest anywhere. Yet, in 2003, 281 operations, including several major ones, were conducted here.
Training Nurses It's impossible to get trained nurses to work in this remote hospital. So THI has trained local tribal girls as nurses. They are first taught basic English and arithmetic. Here, Dr S. Kannan takes a class for nursing health-worker-trainees.
Education is THIs key Tribal women attend one of Dr Lalitha Regi's talks on health and hygiene. THI has laid great emphasis on communication with the tribals and on imparting knowledge about health.
Health
Auxiliaries These older tribal
women were also trained to be health auxiliaries. Unlike the young nurses
we trained, these are mostly women who never had the good fortune of learning
to read or write. Yet, after training, they are now able to use numbers
and perform many duties: treating with basic drugs, weighing babies (as
Kuppi on right is doing) or preparing charts that THI uses as field data.
Jaily (on the left) is a Lumbadi tribal. Ages ago, her ancestors migrated
from the North, and hence she speaks a dialect that's a mix of Gujarati,
Hindi and Tamil. Her costume too varies distinctly from that of the Malayali
tribe.
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Tribal Health Initiative, Sittilingi PO, Dharmapuri Dist, Tamil Nadu, India. Ph: +91-4346-258611 |