Local perception of illness and healing: Rural health practices and development in Bangladeshi village

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International Journal of Development Research

Local perception of illness and healing: Rural health practices and development in Bangladeshi village

Abstract: 

Like in many developing countries, in Bangladesh, health is regarded as ‘an important index of human development’ (Government of Bangladesh, 2013). To develop a global partnership for development the Government of the country puts enough weight on reducing child mortality, improving maternal health along with combating diseases with a commitment to ensure environmental sustainability (Noorani, 2008; Rahman, 2010). Health reforms, aided by national health policy and pro-poor health projects focus on immunization for children and contraception based family planning. Often such reforms do not take into account the role of indigenous medicine as informal health care arrangement in rural areas and prioritize modern medicine reflecting a western orientation towards understanding illness (Vaughan et al., 2000). Particularly women’s understanding of their health and illness and their indigenous knowledge of healing remain largely unnoticed or ignored. This article tends to understand the indigenous insights of traditional medical culture of Char Khankhanapur and Decree Charchandpur, two villages of southwestern Bangladesh and the consequence of modern medicine on local healing. I highlight people’s indigenous perception of illness and healing and discuss about local health practices. It is important to understand local healing practices in rural Bangladesh to realise the impact of western oriented development in local lives. My aim is hence to see how local villagers understand illness and healing and how women work as healers using their herbal and religious knowledge to treat certain illness. This article critically investigates whether western medicine negatively affects local way of healing.

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