Progress of Project
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This report is based on work done under “Centre of Excellence” AIIMS Jodhpur from 2nd June to 15th November 2020. The project started on ground from 15th June 2020 and till date, team COE, AIIMS Jodhpur managed to meet more than 513 tribal/traditional healers (commonly called as bhopa in the state of Rajasthan) across 153 villages in three blocks (TSP Zones) of district Sirohi, uncovering their traditional medicinal knowledge for scientific documentation and analysis for its scientific application and also recorded tribal healer’s knowledge attitude and practices for corona virus disease (COVID-19).
Team COE is involved in conducting various survey among tribal population and collecting their demographic and socioeconomic data to record, analyse, understand and make future road map for taking this work to other seven tribal districts of the state of Rajasthan. Under this project, till date survey of 989 tribal people has been done. Apart, team COE also spread awareness about COVID-19 on multiple occasion. Team COE also spread awareness among tribal girls and women about importance of menstrual hygiene and reproductive health and conducting pre and post-test among them. Till date 4 activity has been successfully conducted and under this we have covered more than 400 beneficiaries and distributing more than 1000 cotton mask (two mask for each one, so that they can reuse easily and maintaining personal hygiene) and 250 sanitary pads and 500 soaps among beneficiary.
In district Sirohi there is 5 blocks and total number of villages is 507, in which 3 blocks is dominated by tribal population and in these blocks number of villages are 301, till date we have covered 153 villages among TSP zone.
Research Activities (Publication):
Manuscript in progress:
1. Exploring the Knowledge Attitude & Practices of Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic among Tribal/Traditional Healers of district Sirohi – A cross-sectional questionnaire based study.
2. Navigating the Potential of Indigenous Healing practices - A Scoping Review.
Manuscript (planned):
1. A critique of healing practices of tribal/traditional healers for common ailments of tribal communities of district Sirohi, Rajasthan.
2. A report on health situations of tribal communities of district Sirohi, Rajasthan - Challenges & Opportunities.
3. Assessment of telemedicine needs in the tribal population of district Sirohi, Rajasthan.
4. Effect of structured training on knowledge, attitude and practice of menstrual hygiene in adolescent school girls of district Sirohi, Rajasthan.
5. Tertiary Care Centre experience of a hybrid telemedicine model in the tribal area (Aburoad tehsil) of district Sirohi, Rajasthan.
Recent News/Updates:
The team COE, AIIMS Jodhpur is proactively working on setting up a functional, sustainable, telemedicine centre solely dedicated to health needs of the tribal in district Sirohi. We have taken approval of the Director, AIIMS Jodhpur to initiate such activity utilizing Hospital Information System (HIS) for patient data recording, prescription writing and cloud storage for data safety & retrieval.
Outcome of Project:
Although it would be premature to comment on the outcome of the project as the project is halfway, certain important activities done so far worth mentioning here.
1. AIIMS Jodhpur is the first AIIMS which has reached out to tribal areas to approach, adapt, appreciate and address the health problems of the tribals of district Sirohi.
2. Considering the COVID-19 pandemic is the dreaded reality of recent times, regular Awareness activity of COVID-19 was conducted at monthly outreach activities at various villages of district Sirohi.
3. In this troublesome time, Awareness about the Menstrual Hygiene and Reproductive Health among adolescent girls & women of various villages of district Sirohi was done.
4. Barring few, there was an excitement among tribal/traditional healers about interaction with the staff of COE, AIIMS Jodhpur. Healers also were very cooperative and consented to attend any training provided by AIIMS Jodhpur.
5. The field activities done by faculty and field staff of AIIMS Jodhpur, is well received by all the level of healthcare providers.
6. The Healthcare staff at CHC Sirohi facilitated for Telemedicine activities at the centre and is backed by District Collector, Sirohi.
7. The activities done by AIIMS Jodhpur is being facilitated by Commissioner (Tribal Area Development) & District Collector, which in turn reflects the faith and satisfaction of work done by AIIMS Jodhpur.