Despite a host of programmes and schemes by the State and Central Governments, a Munda community which migrated from Jharkhand long ago and lives in a forested hamlet of Dhenkanal, is yet to repose faith on modern healthcare and is rather more at home with its traditional health remedies.
The village known as Gopalpur-Munda Sahi in Garhpalasuni Panchayat under the Maoist-infested Kankadahad block has a concrete road, a school, electricity connection, two tube wells, besides a mohrum approach road of 1 km to the panchanat headquarters. The cement concrete road inside the village was constructed at a cost of Rs2 lakh, informs a display board. The school has also a concrete building, a kitchen and storeroom, though there is no boundary. There are three teachers. Scores of tribal students were looking upbeat. One youth, who identified himself as Rajendra Gagrai, said the villagers were proud that for the first time a boy had taken admission in a nearby college.
A teacher of the school was not happy with his posting. A native tribal of Mayurbhanj district, he said that he was facing problems in teaching the tribal kids there who only spoke and understood ‘Ho’ dialect, where as his language was a dialect only spoken by the Mundas of Mayurbhanj.
The small tribal cluster looked very spacious as far as the housing pattern was concerned. It was completely surrounded by Sal trees, but there were a few other species as well. The houses were of equal pattern so that it would certainly confuse any outsider to differentiate one from the other. There were a couple of concrete buildings made up of stone and their roofs cast in cement. Otherwise, the rest, counting over a dozen, were of mud and had thatched roofs of straw or tiles. However, the inhabitants knew well which house belonged to whom. The huts stood on either side of the concrete road in a linear manner with each having a small yard demarcated with a boundary and a gate. A large number of country cocks and hens were moving around.
The house of Mattu Chattar bears a special significance. He is the village priest and is believed to be wielding certain spiritual power. Not everybody dares enter his house and its yard evoked a sort of fear among the villagers like the authoritative persona of the owner.
Chattar is obliged by one and all for being too close to the village deity. The village deity is represented by several earthen horses. They were kept in an open pavilion under a tree; its overarching branches covering the small temple as a canopy. A few broken horse idols were also dumped at the back of the temple. The ones on the main pedestal had vermillion and flower on their heads.
It is from this small shanty that Chatter made his law. The villagers could disapprove of a doctor in a PHC located about 10 km from there but not Chattar, especially when he diagnoses a disease and prescribes ways to recover from it.
The villagers said mostly they suffered from malaria, which took a heavy toll every year. But that apart, it looked there must be high number of neonatal and post natal deaths and deaths due to malnutrition given the fact that the lactating women did not move to a hospital and either resigned to their fate or to Chatter. A few kids around looked to be suffering from malnutrition.
Chattar’s prescription usually is to hold a puja and propitiate the village deity. He sits between the patient and the deity and performs an elaborate puja, be it a case of high fever or snake bite. Finally, he murmurs something into the ear and hisses some mantra around the body. The ritual that remains indispensable is to sacrifice a hen or a goat before the deity. When asked if Chattar was effective and his treatment cured the diseases, none dared to mince a word, except producing an innocent giggle. But the smiles probably spoke volume about a deep rooted pain of not being able to break loose from a belief system and a fear of curse of the priest and the God for doubting their infallibility.