Thursday, Apr 25, 2002
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Andhra Pradesh
By Our Staff Reporter
Despite five decades of Independence, even today there are no basic medical facilities in several of the 200-odd villages of Chevella, Vikarabad and other mandals of Ranga Reddy district, according to the findings of a study team. Most of the villages are now in the grip of a mass "black magic'' fear psychosis, termed in local dialect "Bhanamathi'' and "Chetabhadi.'' A fortnight ago about 20 young girls, almost all of them in their teens, ran naked in the village. The reason, the local self-styled witch doctor suggested such a "propitious'' act as most of the women were suffering from some gynaec problem or the other. And after performing such strange rituals, the villager again shells out Rs. 2,000-3,000 each to the witch doctor as fee. ``Neither the womenfolk have any compunction about such strange behaviour nor the men bothered about the modesty of their women as the entire village is under the fear of the so called Bhanamthi,'' says Vijayam, a social activist here in Vijayawada. Mr. Vijayam was among the eight members from Vijayawada's Atheist Centre who went round over a dozen villages of Ranga Reddy district on April 20-21 at the invitation of the District Superintendent of Police, Ramachandra Raju. The team was led by G. Samaram, a prominent physician here. Other members of the team included Ram Subba Reddy and T. S. Rao (psychiatrists), Gautam (magician), Sylvester (mimicry expert), Niyantra (scientist), Babu Mohan (MLA and cine actor) besides Mr. Vijayam. ``The 20 young girls ran around the village naked were examined by the team and it was found that many of them were suffering from anaemia or other gynaecological problems,'' said Mr. Vijayam. According to another team member, some of the women have illicit affairs. But their husbands choose to overlook the same under the notion that nothing can be done as the women are under the spell of "Bhanamathi'' At Anantagiripally in Vikarabad, two men and a woman were tied upside down to trees and made to pull out each other's teeth on the suspicion that they were performing black magic.These are not isolated cases as such incidents are common in most villages in the districts besides the adjoining districts of Medak, Nizamabad and Nalgonda. Says head of the delegation, Dr. Samaram, "Some of the villagers have stomachache, schizophrenia or joint pains, but in the absence of medical facilities the villagers approach the witch doctors who mislead them. The team's magician, Mr. Gautam, demonstrated the gimmicks resorted to by with doctors but the villagers were not convinced. According to Dr. Samaram, in one single instance the entire village of over 2,000 people go into mass hiccups. "It is nothing but mass hysteria or mob psychology,'' he said. Abject poverty, illiteracy, lack of basic medical facilities are the main reasons for these superstitions among the villagers, Mr. Vijayam added .
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