By Hena Kausar

General Information: There is no transportation facility to take patient from the village to Vidisha. If there are special cards such as one for the pregnant lady to take her to the hospital immediately there is no such information with the villagers. There are around 100 people in Ganeshpura and half of the number in Basenagar. All have to visit Vidisha. There are no hospitals or any person as doctor in the village. The Aim: The purpose of this case study is to know the problems, the weaknesses, the strengths and the status of the village, the people, the authorities, the system and facilities available. To see what the Govt. is doing for the development of villages. To try to learn working with the community. Specific Information: The area around Ganeshpura village is so dirty that one cannot stand it. The pathways leading to inner places of the two villages are littered with cow dung, urine and excreta of all sorts of animals and human beings that we used to be extra careful during our morning session of Prabhat Pheri. The villagers don’t understand the meaning of sanitation. Also the area near the paper mill is their dustbin. Though there is no so called dust bin meant for such purpose and Municipal Corporation comes to clean the area, the out side of the boundary wall of the paper mill, the people dump all sorts of things. It has become a heap of water bottles, tin cans, polythenes, wrapper of chocolates and toffees and all kinds of stuff. But at this, the villagers are not a fault and not to be blamed. They don’t have any dust bin to dump their wastes. They keep their houses, its surrounding, and the school clean but rest is dirty and stinking. The villagers seldom take care of their personal hygiene and sanitation. For example, they wear very dirty clothes and keep their children in the dirt too. Though the Govt. has provided enough of hand pump and some have their personal taps too, then too they do not wash their clothes regularly. Even if they don’t apply soap or washing powder, water is enough to keep them neat and clean. They keep their children so dirty that many flies were sitting all over their faces. Coming to health, there are no hospices, no hospitals, no clinics or any other such place to visit when fallen ill. If any body is mildly ill or even seriously ill they have to visit Vidisha, bring back an auto rickshaw with them, then take the patient to the doctor. If any women is pregnant and has started labour, it’s really difficult for her to be reached to the hospital immediately. Every one has got to wait. In Vidisha, doctors are good enough for they reach for the village people, but medicines are not free. The villagers visit any medical store for the medicine. Even if their animals are sick, the vet has to be called from Vidisha only and its medicines costs the villagers Rs. 100 to Rs. 200. The villages are acquainted with the fact that they have to get their children immunized by taking them to vaccination centre set by the Government. They get their children up to the age of 5 years, every 3 months to the centers for polio drops and chicken pox vaccination. The campaign takes place in the school. There are no toilets available in the village though the Govt. promised to provide the same two years back. Only the schools have the toilets. The villagers go the farthest sides of the village to attend to the call of the nature. The gents of the village have got a very bad habit of taking tobacco and drinking liquor. They are addicted to it. A handsome salary goes into it. Though they know the after effects of narcotics, they love it. Even women are not far behind, they consume tobacco every day and are quite used to it. On digging for the reasons, we came to know that it gives them a high, they forget all their pains and sufferings and get to do their work with a lot of energy and very effectively and don’t feel tiresome. It’s a common problem in every household. The villagers don’t have any information about deadly diseases like AIDS or HIV. They feel very shy to talk about it. Also they don’t go for any operation that prevents unwanted pregnancies for they want lots of kids to last till their death and to become the support of their old age but don’t understand the consequences of it. Coming to food habits, they eat all the vegetables available at the Vidisha market or the vegetable seller who comes to their village for selling the items. But always as there are exceptions to every thing many people don’t eat spinach or other green leafy vegetable because they think it’s so cheap and so easily available that it does not matter to them. But what they don’t realize is very important for their health as well as their growth. These people also have one more draw back that they take meals only two a day contrary to that one should take three meals a day. When we inquired about their timings of taking meal, they told us that they take their first meal at around I I a.m. and second meal at 09 p.m. When we got more deep into the matter, we were surprised to know that almost all women felt weakness and giddiness, even some times panting for breath on doing small chores of the house but they don’t know why it is so. We told them that’s because of incomplete diets in a day and also suggested them to take three meals a day. On asking the reasons for it, they tell us that they don’t have enough time to take three meals a day, they are always very busy. Whatsoever, they take balanced diet. Moreover, there are some who take three meals a day and don’t face such problems. Observation: There is one girl in Ganeshpura namely Meena who is physically challenged as she got paralytic attack at the age of 5 years. Other women of 60 years of age lost her eye to flu at the age of 4 years. Malaria is common problem here due to open ditches which become the breeding ground of mosquitoes. There are no toilets in the village, thus the villagers go to distant fields. Men & women both consume tobacco to get energized to carry out their hectic works for their income is not enough to provide for their food requirements. They don’t take balanced diet (some exceptions are there) or three meals a day due to poverty or lack of time. They don’t take green leafy vegetables because they don’t value it. They feel tired, weakness and fatigue due to over stressing and exhaustion. A man in Ganeshpura named Ramcharan got injured during tractor riding and had fractured his leg and is bedridden since 8 months. No help is provided to him. There are no hospitals in the village and have to visit Vidisha. There are no transport facilities too. Doctors in Vidisha are good and listen to the problems of villagers. Check up is free but the medicines have to be bought from the market. Even if the animals are sick the vet has to be called from Vidisha and it costs the people Rs. 100 to Rs. 200/-. They take water from the Govt. provided hand pumps but some have their personal taps. They keep their houses clean but have dumped their waste in the open out side the boundary wall of paper mill. No system is there to remove it timely. The villagers lack the civic and social sense of hygiene and sanitation. They don’t bother to keep themselves and their children clean let alone the village. The villagers understand the need of getting their children vaccined against polio & chicken pox and get them to the village school for the same. The villagers don’t know about HI V/AIDS and feel shy to talk about it. The villagers don’t know about family planning and don’t bother about big families.” Bada hai to behtar hai” for them. All had to blame the Sarpanch of the village. Results and Conclusions: Meena should be provided a wheel chair or stretcher to walk freely. There should be treatment of flue at the time of occurrence not late. Her eyes could have been protected from being blind. Also the villagers should be made to understand the need of treatment of girl child. Anti-malarial disinfectants should be put in the open ditches and should be made level with the ground. Toilet should be provided in every household. People should be made aware of the harmful effect of narcotics as well as liquor, the wastage of money, the health problem it leads to like cancer and T.B., the tensions and misery it bring in the family. They should be sensationalized about balanced diet. Ramcharan should be provided good medical check up. Transport facility should be made easily accessible. If there are any special cards, they should be made aware of it fully. The Govt. can start any campaign or initiative such as a bus service every week or so to help the villagers. Some form of Municipal Corporation should visit the villages regularly to clean the waste. The people should be made aware of cleanliness and to involve them in Shramdan too. Dust bins should be provided. They should be provided with information on family planning, HIV/AIDS and related matter.