Moment: October 26th, 2019 at 9:25 PM IST
Me: Let's just go to a coffee shop or something to go finish writing our report
Vidya: *looks around* A coffee shop? Where do you think we are?!
I went on a field research trip with some of my professor’s other Medical Anthropology students to the Bhadrachalam ITDA district in Telangana, with the goal of learning about the health condition and access for women in two different tribes that are classified as Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTG). When we reached Bhadrachalam after an overnight bus, we went to the ITDA (Integrated Tribal Development Agency) office, where we met with an official who was able to talk us through the current health climate in the villages of these tribal people.
The government of Telangana implemented various schemes in these regions over the years to try to increase the quality and access of health care. These include the ASHA (Accredited Social Health Activist) and ANM (Auxiliary Nurse Midwife) programs, which train local women from the villages to be health advocates for their community and liasons between the villagers and the hospitals where they would seek treatment or have their deliveries.
We were recommended to make efforts to talk to as many women as we could, including the ASHA’s and ANM’s, to get the most holistic perspective of women’s health in these areas. The ITDA officer arranged a Jeep for us that screamed 80’s archeologist vibes, and we set off on a two-hour journey out to the remote areas where the first of six villages was located. Over the three days, we spent hours driving through the lush countryside, off-roading through the forest, and chasing cell phone signals when our Jeep started leaking oil while we were literally in the middle of nowhere.
Many of the areas that we went to were villages in which the majority of people worked in agriculture, so every time we drove to a new place, we were greeted by expanses of lands surrounded by mountains in the distance. At one point, we were on a road that followed one of the tributaries of the Godavari river and we came across the most beautiful sights at a dam. There were goatherds and cattle drivers just walking on the roads alongside and around our vehicle, and the whole experience was an immersion in nature and simplicity.
The villagers were very welcoming, with many coming out of their homes to greet us when we arrived and even hosting us for meals in their homes. We talked to girls from Ashram schools, newly married women, and older women with grown children of their own. During the interviews, the women were first asked to give an overall profile of their educational and family backgrounds, then they were inquired about hygiene, views on marriage, family planning practices, and their experiences with pregnancy, among others. We thought this would be a lot more difficult to get information on, because many of these topics are considered taboo in their culture, but these women were very open to talking to us and narrated many stories about their experiences.
After gathering all of our data, the information was aggregated to find similarities between the women to determine overall trends in health knowledge and practices, as well as differences to identify discrepancies or gaps in access to healthcare or education in one village or another. I was taken aback by how little the women know about their own health, which became more and more obvious as we got deeper into the conversation.
Many times when we would ask the women about a facet of feminine health, if they did not know, rather than acknowledge that they don’t know, they would say that their children probably know because they are educated. This is probably true because most of the information they had seemed to be on a need-to-know basis, while their children had more of an understanding because the ASHA holds seminars or a one-on-one meetings for both boys and girls once they reach adolescences or marrying age. Although this is still a bit too late in a young woman’s life, the efforts that the government is making to medicalize these communities’ practices to reduce complications from childbirth and other illnesses, as well as educate people about health, is a good first step.
