[Urbanstudy] Narratives of sickness

[sebastian Rodrigues]

Dear Prashanti,

This one is good, well researched, deeply insightful and covers lots of 
grounds in terms of understandings of the migrants situation, their 
alienating attitude towards health authorities and also how middle classes 
are gradually changing their attitude of holding migrant responsible for 
malaria. Also there are translations from three different languages- 
Konkani, Marathi and Hindi!

However this paragraph of yours is very striking "The tragedy of these 
people were at personal level they were trying to take precaution but no 
measures at nearer construction site resulted in providing grounds for 
mosquito breeding which in turned contributed in spreading malaria and they 
were the  first victims of this attack by tiny terrorist mosquitoes"

But I am not sure as to what degree it is appropriate to hold Mosquito as a 
terrorist. What terminology to use for the contractors and builders who 
create necessary condition to breed mosquitoes through the acts of omission? 
Of course you have gone deeper and unravel the complexities involved. Yet I 
think we need to be careful in the use of term - 'terrorist'.

The failure of chemical methods of combat has been ably demonstrated by 
Rachel Carson in 'Silent Spring' in 1962. Then the next question arises as 
to why the biological form of control in term of fish introductions has been 
given low priority and it is stopped? Is not the nexus between Builders, 
politicians and government officials responsible for this?

Sebastian Rodrigues



>From: "prashanti ajgaonkar" <prashanti.a at rediffmail.com>
>Reply-To: prashanti ajgaonkar <prashanti.a at rediffmail.com>
>To: urbanstudygroup at sarai.net
>Subject: [Urbanstudy] Narratives of sickness
>Date: 27 Aug 2005 10:31:07 -0000
>
>   
>
>Narratives of sickness
>
>By Prashanti Ajgaonkar
>Goa University.
>
>Sarai- CSDS students stipendship research on city 2004-2005
>
>“Nahi hume malaria ke bare me kuch nahi pata” (No. we don’t know anything 
>about Malaria) this was the response from the group of labourers whom I 
>interviewed . Basically they were not interested  to share any information 
>as they had impression that I am a  health official and come to check the 
>site and their health card . Well this was the common reaction of the 
>labourers. They wanted to hide the truth even in their conversation. After 
>knowing the fact that it was for my study purpose they were relaxed in 
>their sharing. But I could still notice in some of the cases there were 
>tense moments of decision as to whether  to reveal or conceal the truth.
>
>I had selected 5 different construction sites in Panaji namely Taligao, 
>St.Inez, Patto (Bus stand),  Bambolim and  Porvorim – the periphery  of 
>Panaji. Subsequently  Different wards of Panaji were selected which often 
>has high Malaria cases like Taligao, St.Inez, Dona Paula and Caranzalem.
>
>It was evening time ( 28 may 2005)  when I visited this construction site 
>near Panaji bus stand, hoping the absence of contractor/ supervisor, so 
>that migrant labourers  would speak freely about their suffering and 
>problem. My perception was wrong as I arrived the construction site one of 
>the workers informed the supervisor and all the narratives were 
>manipulated. Well, it was good example to understand how higher authority 
>interferes in the common man’s opinion.
>
>They did not reveal most of the information, which I wanted to know about 
>facilities provided by the contractor, Health official their role to 
>control malaria etc , but unfortunately  they replied very casually “ Sab 
>Acha hai”, well I could observe the situation how they were forced to say 
>this words “ every thing is fine” . Although there were no proper place for 
>  them to stay. No sanitation facility, no water facility etc , but then 
>also “every thing is fine!”
>
>I was not satisfied with their narratives as I found it incomplete and 
>manipulated so I made another visit intending to speak to more workers. 
>Luckily I spoke to one labour who was sensible in narratives. Like others 
>who denied to reveal the information but after knowing the fact he started  
>sharing interesting thoughts.
>
>Saidh chillur 38 years’ old men from the village Sondur ,Karnataka is 
>working in Goa for last 4 Years . “ Many time people who came for survey or 
>other  visit related to malaria says that we get germs from our village 
>but, we very often heard this term ‘Malaria’ in Goa  and in our village”. 
>He further mentions that the whole group who have come from same village 
>had taken same malaria preventive medicine in “sarkari  davakhana”. 
>Generally who suffers from any illness prefers to go back to the village. “ 
>Bimari me Mestri hame goan bejta hai” (The supervisor sends them back to 
>their village during the sickness time). “ Who will take the responsibility 
>of these workers, so best way to get rid of this problem is to pay them and 
>send back to their village” this was the statement made by the contractor 
>Mr. Naik.
>
>“The village people then blame us for getting malaria germs from Goa and 
>same is the situation in ‘Sarkari davakhana’ when we take the treatment.  
>Our situation is like “ “Dhobi ka kuta no ghar ka na ghat ka”, Here also we 
>blamed to spread malaria and in village also they blame us for getting 
>Malaria”
>He rightly observed that In Goa they are easily available scapegoats for 
>the higher authorities  when it comes for spreading malaria only single 
>reason is they migrate from malaria endemic area.
>
>Another site that I visited in Porvorim consisted labourers form Nanded 
>from Maharastra  Well they had feeling that their Maharastra  is great, so 
>at the first instinct they said            “ Amcha kade Malaria prakar 
>Govya itka nahi” ( In Maharastra malaria is not that common as in Goa.) He 
>further agreed that people suffer from other diseases but not malaria. They 
>were all aware of all symptoms, causes and precautions. Even they were 
>aware of  facility provided by Health authorities  and the importance of 
>Health cards.
>
>They were praising efforts taken by the health authorities to visit the 
>site and take the blood sample for malaria testing and also on the health 
>cards. In this group there “Mestri”( labour  contractor at local level), 
>“so he reported and we insist other worker to prepare the Health card and 
>to take malaria precaution”. They further said once the health department 
>officials had introduced fish in the water tank but currently there is no 
>fish as anti-larval precaution and nor this area is sprayed by the 
>chemicals as malaria precaution of late.
>
>The tragedy of these people were at personal level they were trying to take 
>precaution but no measures at nearer construction site resulted in 
>providing grounds for mosquito breeding which in turned contributed in 
>spreading malaria and they were the  first victims of this attack by tiny 
>terrorist mosquitoes. So malaria suffering was common in that group.
>
>Malaria suffering was common phenomenon among the local people. As soon as 
>they would hear the term “jor” (fever) and next sentence is “go and check 
>your blood. Besides several drives lunched against the malaria it has not 
>shown the satisfactory result. This was main argument of the Panaji 
>residents. “Only lunching various drive doesn’t serve the aim of combating 
>Malaria, but needs proper execution which is very poor in our authorities” 
>said by Mr. Kerkar a resident of Taligao area.  Most of the local people 
>were aware of Malaria problem and they were well known about the facilities 
>provided by them.
>
>Frequent fogging in the mosquitoes breeding area or likely to be, is one of 
>the measures under taken by the Directorate of Health Services. This drive 
>is considered to be great efforts at root level. But effectiveness of this 
>drive was lost because of lethargic attitude of health workers. “For the 
>sake of doing they do the fogging in few places and rest of the working 
>time is spent chatting near the temple” reported by women from word no 10 
>in St. Inez  in Panaji. This was common behaviour narrated by the local 
>people in various parts of Panaji city. They blame here the authority and 
>not the migrant labourers. In some of the cases among the middle class 
>family, the attitude of blaming the labourers was changed. Again the 
>knowledgeable section had sort out the main reasons of spread of malaria 
>but till date the Higher authorities has an explanation for the spread of 
>malaria, is mainly because of rise in influx of migrant labourers for 
>construction purpose.
>
>Case study 1
>Santosh Mohite from Nanded in Maharastra left his native place and moved in 
>Goa in search of job. At the beginning he intended to take up painting 
>works. But absence of contacts in Goa made him to work as Labourer at 
>construction site. He was paid “Hajri”- daily wages. This routine was 
>followed for last 8 years. He was under going a change in levels of his 
>work at the construction site. Recently he was victim of Malaria.
>
>In the month of June 2005 he suffered from fever, so symptoms like 
>headache, shivering, and vomiting were experienced so he took “Crocin” 
>tablets from nearer pharmacy. As a result the fever was cured, so next day 
>he went for the work as not to loose his ‘Hajri’ daily pay, but at the end 
>of day he experienced same symptoms, ones again this matter was not 
>reported to the Doctors. Again he consumed Crocin tablets as he was 
>suffering from minor cough this resulted into fever this was his belief.
>
>Now he found that he was becoming bad so consulted the private doctor in 
>Taleigao area in Panaji, as to save his time and patience he avoided 
>visiting government hospital.
>While consulting him doctor inquired about the symptoms. The earlier 
>mentioned symptoms were reported to the doctor.  He prescribed the medicine 
>which Cost him Rs. 160/-. Well there were no chances of cure, finally he 
>thought of visiting the government hospital as the situation was worse, he 
>thought that he might have admitted to the hospital. But he was wrong, he 
>realized it soon as they were told by doctor to test the blood for Malaria 
>and prescribed same anti-malaria medicine. The Malaria testing reports were 
>  to be collected after a week.
>Accordingly the report was collected which stated presence of Malaria. He 
>had lost his 4 days in applying easy ways to get rid of this health problem 
>and further a week was wasted in knowing the reports well , he was saved 
>because it was Plasmodium Vivax  and not the cerebral Malaria that is 
>Plasmodium Falciparum.
>
>
>Case study 2
>Manjulla  from Belgoan in Karnataka  currently settled in Kolval, Mapusa 
>,Goa, for last 12 years she is working in Goa, after the death of her 
>parents she shifted along with the family of her married sister. They were 
>working under single contractor for all period.
>The Manjulla worked to load and down load the raw material at construction 
>site. She is paid as “rokda Labour” mean daily wages labour.
>
>Last year they were working in Panaji city that has  tremendously developed 
>its infrastructure. Every day they were traveling from Mapusa to Panaji. 
>Her sister had 3 year old girl child ‘Meenu’, she was brought on 
>construction site. Normally we find this picture in every construction 
>site, the parents are busy in working and their children are in and around 
>the construction site playing in sand and soil. Without the concern of harm 
>and hygiene. She further added, in later period the construction was 
>speeded up as to complete the work before the IFFI  (International film 
>festival of India).
>
>During this period 3 years old ‘Meenu’ suffering from fever, much attention 
>was not paid because of work load, even the supervisor refused to give half 
>day holiday and suggested to give tablets from the pharmacy.
>“ Meenu was shivering in the fever” she said. The tablets which local 
>pharmacy had give after describing the symptoms like Shivering, bodyache in 
>fever. Temporarily the fever was cure, but alternately fever had its 
>attack. Finally in late night she was admitted in Government hospital 
>(GMC).
>
>After long time she was attended by the Doctor in Casualty She was injected 
>and  given  other treatments. The doctor recommend  to by the malaria 
>testing kit which was available for Rs 50/- which gives the reports 
>immediately .” Our half day pay” she added but to carry out the test as 
>this facility was not provided at night there was no option to wait till
>Next morning after this test 3 year old ‘Meenu’ was infected with malaria, 
>plasmodium vivax.
>
>Once again they entered in the sphere of threat of malaria, with in one 
>week after this incidence Manjulla experienced fever with symptoms of 
>shivering, severe headache
>and vomiting.  This time they observed that this were malaria so 
>immediately tested for malaria in Health centre in Panaji. After the blood 
>sample she was provided with presumptive treatment that is the treatment 
>provided to the fever cases presuming that patient has malaria.  Here the 
>reports were provided immediately on next day stating presence of 
>Plasmodium Vivax.
>
>
>
>


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