The Travelling Teacher
An interview with Dr Balaram Sahu, who runs Pathe Paathshala, a travelling ‘People’s University’ that shares traditional ‘people-oriented-technologies’ with pastoralists in Odisha.
By, Puneet Bansal
This interview was first published in Pastoral Times Issue VII dated 1st June 2019.
Can you introduce Pathe Paathshala to our readers?
Pathe Paathshala, a Peoples’ University on the Move, is a travelling school/class imparting training to people at the grassroots about low input-based small skills related to livestock-keeping, herbal remedies for animals, indigenous poultry keeping, herbal pesticide-making for crops, fisheries, irrigation and natural resources management.
Classes are attended by villagers, farmers, pastoralists, women, artisans, and others. We make use of stories, rhymes, songs and anecdotes to teach, which the people can remember easily and also pass on to their friends and peers. I usually carry some booklets and visual aids to show to the participants.
Pathe Paathshala must be a fun class to attend! How did you come up with the idea of starting such a school?
When universities, Krishi Vigyan Kendras and other government agencies conduct training, people who are not involved in farming or livestock keeping are made to attend them to fill the quorum. These reluctant participants end up losing their daily wages. Women rarely attend as they also have domestic responsibilities.
English often acts as the medium with trainers using much jargon alien to the participants. It occurred to me then that such training should be at a place, time and in a language convenient to the people.
Many people at the grassroots feel uneducated and excluded as they did not have much formal education. Pathe Pathshala gives them a chance to attend classes and not feel excluded from the education process.
Indeed, education’s importance cannot be overstated. What is the idea behind the ‘people-oriented technologies’ taught in your training programmes?
In a rural context, there is a lot of indigenous knowledge and ‘people-oriented technologies’ in people’s daily lives. Many have been scientifically validated by different agencies. All we need is to nurture them so that it empowers people with knowledge. The tools and ingredients for these are locally available. Women and farmers have immense faith in them. My motto is to tap into their skills–something they can do by themselves, without help from outsiders.
For example, there is a herbal remedy for diarrhoea in livestock used by farmers. It can be summed up as a rhyme: “Dast jab hua patla/Haridra, dahi usko khila.” All one needs to do is make a mixture of 150 gms of haridra (turmeric) and half a cup of dahi (curd), and feed it to the animal two times a day for 3 days. It barely costs 10–15 rupees. This simple low-input skill is affordable for a villager, as medicines cost a lot more. It is scientific too as turmeric contains bio-molecules like curcumin and dahi contains RNase and probiotics which kill the bacteria.
People do not perceive such remedies as alien and readily accept them. We need to scientifically describe these and give them back in a language they can understand. In my book ‘My poetic therapy to cure cows’, now translated into English, every such technology is described in rhyme in Odia.
How interesting! Could you tell us more about how Pathe Paathshala has helped pastoralists in the region?
Many pastoralists struggle to access veterinary doctors who can attend to sick animals, especially during migration. The doctors are often too busy to come to the field to treat the animals.
Pathe Paathshala gives pastoralists remedies to treat animals on their own. We also run a Tele-Vet programme. Pastoralists call us whenever they have a problem and we give them detailed information on the ingredients needed, how to procure them, and then use them.
Periodically, pastoralists invite us to conduct training. We have published booklets in local languages for them, covering several relevant topics for pastoralists, like breeding. Since the beginning of the current lockdown, the daily number of calls we receive has gone up 4–5 times. This shows that many pastoralists do not have access to vets, as also that they find our methods useful.
How has pastoralism contributed to your knowledge bank?
Pathe Paathshala is a platform for the cross-pollination of knowledge, especially between different groups or communities inhabiting separate geographies, who may not be communicating with each other. This is also true for pastoralists.
You have also worked with pig pastoralists. Can you tell us something about it?
Pig Pastoralism is prevalent in East and North-east India. The Kellas are a community in Odisha practising pig herding. Society gives them a tough time and people are generally hostile towards the pigs who are blamed for destroying crops and spreading diseases like swine flu. It is well established that swine flu is not spread by pigs but human transmission, which I always mention in my public interviews.
Finally, what has your experience of running Pathe Paathshala taught you?
I was once taking a class in a Maoist-affected tribal area of Nuapada district in Odisha. Initially, there were about fifty participants, that later swelled up to about two hundred people. The class was on herbal remedies for diseases in goats. After the class, they requested me to participate in a spontaneously arranged community feast, giving me a grand farewell later. On our way back, my companions told me that some of the participants were Maoists. I did not however feel threatened at all while I was there. Rather, they were very courteous and kind to me. This experience taught me how working with love can conquer all odds.
Dr Balaram Sahu is a Veterinarian by profession in Odisha. He has won several awards for his work on traditional knowledge and technologies and has authored 14 books on the subject, which has been translated into several languages.
