SOCIETY
Sharad K. Soni On Treatment by Blood-letting
The aged 'hakim' hunches forward, takes out a razorblade and searches for the right vein on his patient's left leg. The leg is tied tightly with cloth, to make his job easier. The patient. Winces as he makes an incision to draw out blood. As the blood trickles out, the Hakim and his helpers pour lukewarm water over the cut, to aid the flow. The 20-minute procedure is followed for a few weeks until he has drawn all the impure blood to cure the disease. It takes him only a few minutes to locate the exact vein to be cut.
Hakim Mohammed Ghayas claims to have cured thousands of patients using this method, sitting on the steps of the Jama Masjid in Delhi. His open air clinic, Rahat Open Surgery, attracts hundreds of patients’ every day. They come with all sort of diseases - from arthritis, diabetes, lumbago and gout to cancer. "I have treated more than a lakh patients", claims Ghayas, 62.
He wants the government to recognise his 'blood-letting', but the medical fraternity is not impressed.
According to the illiterate Ghayas, his treatment finds a mention in the scriptures and in Unani medicine. He says that the root cause of all disease is bad blood.
No medication is used to stop the bleeding. It stops on its own. As a precaution Ghayas advises his patientsto take an anti-tetanus injection and bring their own blade.
Ghayas, who has been treating patients since the lat16 years, learned the technique from his grandfather who died a ripe 113, in 1976. For four years he was trained under his uncle Abdul Majeed whom he considers his second guru. .
The treatment is free, but anyone who wishes to make a donation is welcome.
Sexologist Rapes Patients
Dr. Abdul Rehman Shahni, a sexologist, was arrested by Bhopal police. On charge of raping a 25-year-oldtribal woman from Gondia (Maharashtra). In a lodge, owned by one Aziz Miyan, along with the latter and a third accomplice. The sexologist has been practising here for the last 25 years and visits various big cities regularly.
K. Venkateshwarlu On Hyderabad's Child Bride
Five years after she was pitch forked to international fame, when poverty drove her family to marry her to an old Arab Sheikh, "Hyderabad's child-bride", Ameena is now a forgotten girl.
Well past her troubled childhood, she is all of 18 now.
Despite her stubborn (refusal to marry) her parents are desperately searching for a suitable match.
Ameena keeps herself busy with the painstaking zari embroidery work on sarees. "It takes about four to five days to complete a saree". Each saree fetches herRs.50, supplementing her meagre family income.
When rescued, she was literally promised the moon, from foreign currency to education and job. But the family continues to live in a state of penury.
All that she got was a sewing machine from the Mahila Dakshata Samithi and a telephone connection sanctioned by Mr. Rajesh Pilot (as) the Communications Minister. We are unable to pay rent. Our repeated appeal to change this telephone to that of a public STD or a local call office has fallen on deaf ears".
"It was sheer poverty that forced me to perform Ameena's marriage to the. Arab. I was not in a position to pool Rs. 60,000 to Rs.70,000 required for meeting the demands of the local bridegrooms".
Female Infanticide in Bihar
In Bihar about 15 lakh girl infants are killed every year according to a report published in 'Jan Satta', a leading Hindi national daily.
The report is based on a sample survey conducted in four blocks of four districts of Bihar by a Voluntary Organisation 'Adithi'
(A) Female baby it is born is killed by forcing three spoon of salt or urea in the baby's mouth until she breaths her last ... by twisting her neck. The act is done under the veil of secrecy.
The morbid greed for dowry is one of the major factors. Ironically, what started centuries ago by the Rajputs as an attempt to preserve their honour at the time of arranging suitable match for their daughters and the humiliation faced for what of dowry thereafter, gradually assumed a most inhuman and dastardly tool to combat the dowry menace. As the economically weaker castes are getting richer, the social evil of dowry is taking deep roots in these communities.
As a result the sex-ratio in Bihar is on gradual decline. According to 1981 census, there were 946 female per 1,000 males. The 1991 census showed ... 911 female per 1,000 male. In 39 districts the number of women is declining steadily.
