Health Seeking Behavior for Garo Children of Madhupur, Bangladesh

Abstract

This master’s thesis explores the health seeking behaviors for children in the Garo indigenous community of Bangladesh drawing on medical pluralism theoretical framework. The thesis is based on one month-long fieldwork in a northern village of the country, Sainamari. In this village, different health care systems co-exist: the scientific medical system (missionary clinics, pharmacist, hospitals, village doctors, clinics), the traditional herbalists (Kabiraj), the spiritual healer (Khamal), and the use of household treatment system like home-remedies. This study analyzes how the parents define illnesses and seek therapies for their children’s health and use their indigenous cultural practices to health maintenance for their future generation. Although bio-medicine became the dominant model in terms of health care practices around the world, the Garo indigenous community still highly depends on self-treatments, like home-remedies and folk healers like the Kabiraj and the Khamal. The findings of this thesis contributes to the understanding of how the Garo people’s child healthcare in Bangladesh works.