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Smallpox fear still exists in remote tribal areas

KORAPUT: Smallpox might have made its exit from the Indian sub-continent, but certainly not from the minds of tribal people staying in the remote parts of Koraput district. Popularly known as Basanta, the disease had been the major cause of deaths in the past and even today when medical science has ruled out its existence in the country. Khuji Jani of Bagra village in Koraput block is believed to have been suffering from the disease.

Khuji had small boils all over her body and suffered from fever for eight days, Khagapati Jani, says her husband.

It is Basanta, meaning smallpox in the local language, and can not be cured in hospital, says Hari Jani, father of Khagapati who is also a Disari, the tribal priest in the community.

He performed puja for the last seven days keeping her inside the house. The boils settled down a little while the temperature remained high. This was the time when the goddess of Basanta leaves her body, Hari adds.

Rituals had begun to make the goddess happy.

The pale face had little reasons to smile as the hen and little pig lying helplessly in front of her.

They were butchered kept in front of her as an offering to the goddess.

Sublam Khosla, an elderly person from Bhejiput in Nandigaon panchayat remained a silent spectator.

He knows it was not fair and there was need to take her to hospital. But he was a visitor to the village.

An anganwadi worker of Balipeta, Smitarani Das, and a teacher, Motilal Sahu, tried to convince people to take the patient to hospital at Koraput.

But they even refused to take medicines from them.

However, when contacted, Niranjan Das, a doctor in the district headquarters hospital, says that it is difficult to say what it is exactly without examining the patient.

In no way it could be Basanta as believed by people or even by the anganwadi worker, he says.

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