Samvaad: A Space for Dialogue and Celebration
Each year, Tata Steel Foundation hosts a large convening known as Samvaad. In Sanskrit, samvaad means dialogue, conversation, or discussion – a fitting name for an event which brings together hundreds of tribal communities from across India. For one week, Jamshedpur becomes a space to celebrate and honor tribal traditions while exploring opportunities for empowerment and development.
The days were filled with lectures and interactive sessions while the evening activities took place at Jamshedpur’s main festival grounds. There, Samvaad attendees sold tribal handicrafts, cooked up mouthwatering local delicacies, and shared beautiful musical and dance performances. Celebrations were especially festive this year as Jharkhand marks 25 years of statehood.
Learning at the Intersection of Tradition and Medicine
Throughout the week, I attended sessions focused on tribal healing practices. The participants represented tribes from several states, including Meghalaya, Nagaland, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, and Odisha. On the first day, Dr. Tejinder Kaur, a medical doctor and researcher with several years of experience working with tribal populations, led a compelling presentation on the intersection between tribal and modern medicinal practices. Several parts of her discussion were relevant to my project with the Maternal and Newborn Survival Initiative (MANSI). Dr. Tejinder’s talk centered on highlighting widely practiced cultural practices, dispelling common myths, and sharing scientific and medical knowledge. This is a particularly sensitive subject because many of these traditions have been practiced for generations and are woven into daily life, livelihoods, and ancestral identity.
Going into the session, I had my doubts about how it would play out—would participants feel defensive or dismissed? Instead, the discussion was framed with deep respect and cultural grounding. Participants were eager to share their own experiences while engaging openly with ideas about improving health outcomes in their communities.
Navigating Sensitive Conversations with Respect
A significant part of the lecture covered maternal and child nutrition. Dr. Tejinder described several practices she has encountered that negatively affect maternal nutrition. For example, in some communities, pregnant women avoid drinking milk because of the belief that milk is meant only for the young of animals (Kaur, 2019). However, this avoidance can lead to calcium, vitamin D, and protein deficiencies for mothers. Similarly, some tribes restrict the food intake of mothers both during pregnancy and immediately after birth. They play a key role in preserving sacred cultural traditions while promoting evidence-based care practices. This is due to a widespread misconception that the uterus and stomach are the same organs, and that overconsumption of food could suffocate the baby and delay healing after birth. In reality, restricting food intake increases the risk of malnutrition and anemia, leading to poor maternal and child health outcomes. Learning about these rituals reinforced the importance of programs like MANSI where community health workers act as important liaisons between remote communities and the public health system. They play a key role in preserving sacred cultural traditions while promoting evidence-based care practices. Given that tribal communities may face discrimination when interacting with the non-tribal healthcare system, some are understandably hesitant to fully adopt modern medicine. Dr. Tejinder emphasized that involving the whole family in health decisions is important to support behavior change that respects tradition while protecting health.
Newborn care was also a main theme of the session. Umbilical cord care is an important part of home-based newborn care (HBNC), a framework promoted by Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) across India. Dr. Tejinder shared herbs or pastes are commonly applied on the umbilical cord shortly after a birth. However, if the area is not kept sanitized and clean, serious infection can quickly develop. Additionally, some communities keep the newborn babies unclothed until after the umbilical cord stump is shed, but this can lead to hypothermia. For this reason, the promotion of baby wrapping is essential in hard-to-reach communities. If a newborn suffers from hypothermia and is far from a health center or hospital, efficient at-home management is critical to their survival.
One of the most controversial practices discussed was chiri daag, where an infant’s skin is burned with a heated iron rod to prevent stomach pain or boost immunity (Kaur, 2019). While a few participants shared that they themselves had undergone this practice without recalling harm, Dr. Tejinder emphasized its serious risks, including infection and sepsis. After the session, I learned that chiri daag has been outlawed nationally, with documented cases of legal action taken against caregivers who continue the practice.
When Indigenous Knowledge Shapes Modern Care
What struck me most was Dr. Tejinder’s discussion of indigenous practices that have positively influenced modern healthcare. One such practice is maternal rooming, where mothers and babies are kept together 24/7 after birth rather than being placed in separate rooms. This approach is widely practiced in tribal communities. Maternal rooming promotes bonding, facilitates breastfeeding, and can reduce the risk of sudden infant death syndrome. For these reasons, it has since been adopted by many health centers and hospitals as a best practice. This serves as a prime example of how traditional knowledge and scientific practice can coexist and enrich one another.
Overall, the sessions I attended during Samvaad reflected the depth, diversity, and cultural significance of tribal healing systems and the importance of engaging with them thoughtfully in public health work. Dr. Tejinder discussion about her experiences navigating this balance in clinical settings was particularly illuminating. Developing a richer understanding of the cultural context of the communities in which MANSI operates is essential to my role, especially as I begin designing HBNC e-learning modules for ASHAs. It will help ensure that the training materials are not only medically accurate, but also culturally sensitive, relevant, and responsive to the realities ASHAs encounter in the field.
References
Kaur, T. P. (2019). Integrating age-old cultural reproductive health practices with modern medicine to bring down morbidity and mortality among Birhor tribes of Jharkhand, India. International Journal of Reproduction, Contraception, Obstetrics and Gynecology, 8, 24–30.
