MP villages fight virus with superstitious practices, quacks

In Ganeshpur village, people take out torch rally to ‘drive out’ Coronavirus from their village

A few remote pockets in rural Madhya Pradesh are currently battling the Coronavirus pandemic with superstitious practices and quacks, due to lack of access to medical facilities.

In the village of Johri under Bomari block in Guna district, people have started thronging the nearby river of Barni to fetch ‘miracle water’ to cure Covid-19, reports reaching Thursday said.

According to the reports, a rumour that a small patch of the dried up river bed has begun yielding water made rounds, the area immediately witnessed mad rush by locals who wanted to fetch a bottle of the ‘miracle’ liquid to treat people infected by Coronavirus.

The block administration has rushed the local ‘patwari’ or revenue inspector to probe the incident official here on and dissuade the villagers not to believe in such superstitions.

“Patwari Mahendra Singh Dhakad visited the spot on Wednesday. He asked people gathered on the riverbed to disperse. He was, however, chased away by the mob”, a senior district officer said unwilling to be quoted.

In another village of Umaria under Aron police station in the district, police last week arrested three healers who were taking gullible villagers for a ride by promising them to ward off ‘corona ghost’ to make them immune to Covid-19.

The three accused, Kalyan Singh Ahirwar, Ram Singh Ahirwar and Maheswar Ahirwar, were arrested under section 269 (negligently spreading infection), 270 (willingly spreading infection) and 188 (disobedience to order promulgated by public servant) and Section 4 of the Epidemic Act, 1897, police said.

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Ganeshpur in Agar Malwa district, people took out a torch rally last fortnight to ‘drive out’ corona from their village.

The local youths ran around the village holding torches and chanting ‘bhago corona bhago’ (go corona go) slogans on the night of April 22 believing that the pandemic would be driven out by resorting to such superstitious practices.

Quacks in the villages were seen making hay out of the pandemic due to lack of access to medical facilities by the people in remote villages as well as fear of visiting hospitals by the locals.

A quack was found running an ‘open ground hospital’ to treat suspected Covid-19 patients in his orange orchard on the outskirts of the village of Dhaniyakhedi in the district when a team of local block officers visited the spot following a tip off.

The team found people lying on the floor were being administered IV fluids hanging from trees.

According to Agar Malwa district chief medical health officer Samandar Singh Malvya, the orange farm owner was allegedly running the ‘open ground’ hospital.

“Four cases have been registered in connection with the incident against the ‘unlicensed practitioners’ for duping people”, he said.

Madhya Pradesh on Thursday reported 12,319 fresh cases taking the tally to 6,24,98.