It’s done as treatment for Kalachhir disease
Kalachhir is an illness of children, which cannot be treated with medicines, Bhumisuta Herna, mother of a 10-day-old girl child of Kaitpadar village in Sinapali block, was convinced.
The child has 25 red spots of two mm width each on her body — 18 on her belly, one each on the left and right wrists, two on both sides of her forehead and two above two ears. Some of the spots look like small boils caused due to burns. What are those spots forIJ One would get scared hearing the answer.
“Those are wounds caused due to marking by hot iron stick. The Vaidya (traditional medicine man) did it to treat Kalachhir,” explained the child’s grandmother.
What is KalachhirIJ Kala is black and chhir is vein, which means visibility of the veins of a new born baby on its body. The villagers feel that when the ailment appears, a child stops breastfeeding and cries continuously. The only method to treat it is to dot the body especially the belly portion with hot iron stick.
However, the doctors here beg to disagree. “It is a superstition. It is not an illness, the visibility of the veins in a child’s body is natural due to thin skin,” the CDMO of Nuapada said.
The death rate due to Kalachhir in rural areas of Nuapada district is alarming, but all these go unnoticed, because the verbal autopsy of the deaths is not done in a majority of cases. Verbal autopsy means documentation of the cause of deaths by the field level workers of the Health department, which is the only source of information to detect the causes. But, the field records of the workers do not have any mention about Kalachhir; rather they are shown as deaths due to infections, low birth weight and others.
“The cause should be recorded in detail and if the practice is there in large-scale, awareness generation programme should be conducted. If the practice still prevails, the people involved in such cruel practice should be treated by law for their cruelty and torture,” opined advocate Chitta Ranjan Sing Deo.
The cruel treatment of Kalachhir in Nuapada district is widespread. A survey conducted from January 2013 to May 2014 on causes of deaths of children in Buergaon Gram Panchayat of Boden block reveals that three children out of 14 treated for Kalachhir had died due to the cruel treatment.
There were eight deaths in 50 child births in the Panchayat in during the period and three of the eight deaths were caused due to the dotting.
In litisargi Gram Panchayat of Boden block, one-third of the total deaths were due to Kalachhir treatment in 2013-14. The records of 14 Anganwadi Centres of the Panchayat show that there were 29 infant deaths in 336 births. The field workers said eight deaths were due to the cruel treatment.
A discussion with the field level workers of the Health department reveals that 20 to 30 per cent of the new born children undergo the cruelty of Kalachhir treatment and more than 30 per cent of them die of it.
The death might be caused due to severe pain of the dotting or subsequent infections. Whatever the cause may be the cruelty should be stopped. “The Health department should be made accountable for not taking adequate steps to prevent such cruel act of superstition, said District Press Club secretary Tapan Das.