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FRLHT is engaged in "inter-cultural
research" on strategically chosen aspects of Traditional Knowledge
in order to build bridges of understanding between Indian and
Western systems of medicine.
1.
Assessment of bone-setting tradition in South India
Of all the traditional healing practices bone-setting plays a vital
role in meeting the needs of orthopeadic problems, especially in the
rural area where the facilities for formal primary and secondary
health care are still not adequate. Now, as a field research
programme, we are looking into the extent of service provided by the
traditional bonesetters. This essentially involves sociological and
medical aspects of fracture healing.
In this modern mechanized world an average of thousand deaths occurs
everyday on the road and about seven million are injured in road
accidents, 90% of the morbidity is due to fractures and
dislocations. Therefore, it is important to document and revitalize
our bone-setting tradition. The preliminary studies conducted by
FRLHT and other NGOs of similar interests have shown that
approximately 60,000 bonesetters are serving the rural population of
developing India. In certain cases in cities, approximately 30- 40
patients are attended to every day by a single bonesetter.
Totally, about 350 traditional bone setters were documented in 16
districts in Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry and four districts in Kerala.
Software for documenting the data on traditional bone-setting is
also being developed.
The programme includes a pilot study to document the efficacy of
traditional management methods for fractures and dislocations with
the help of modern diagnostic tools such as X-ray.
2. Studies on Malaria
As there is no direct reference to the term
“malaria” in the Ayurvedic or other Indian traditional medical
literature, it is essential to have a rigorous disease correlation
of malaria with traditional medical nosological entities.
3.
Ethno-botanical nomenclature programme
Ethno-nomenclature or local name is a visible aspect of the local
knowledge of plants and of local health traditions. It tells us how
communities think/ use/ distinguish plants which is apparent from
the meanings of the names. Meaning of the plant name also gives an
idea regarding the basis on which the plants or set of plants are
being grouped and identified.
The ethno-botanical nomenclature programme took its inception in
August 2003. This programme is a inter-cultural study to explore the
nature of folk, nomenclature and taxonomy. The analysis of plant
names will be done at three levels viz etymological, epistemological
and taxonomical.
Initial field studies are being carried out in Karnataka, which will
gradually be expanded to an all-India level using ethno-botanical
and anthropological methodology.
4.
Database on traditional
collection standards
In order to study the relevance of traditional quality standards of
raw drugs in respect of collection, processing, storage and their
application, the first and foremost step is to document them in a
systematic manner. The database includes information derived from
both folk and codified traditions.
5.
Studies
on ethno-veterinary practices
Local communities have high priority for the health problems
of their livestock. Identification of health problems in livestock
and subsequent documentation of remedial measures is documented from
the paramparika vaidyas based on their prior informed consent. The
assessment is done through "Rapid Assessment of Local Health
Traditions (RALHT)" method. This is a participatory way of
documenting and assessing the data. Besides this, a desk research is
done to collect published data on the efficacy and safety of the
selected drugs.
This approach is called a rapid assessment as it is done with
a back-up of strong literary supportive evidences from Indian
Systems of Medicine (ISM) and Western bio-medical science. Promotion
of assessed data on remedial measures is done by means of kitchen
herbal gardens through training village resource persons. FRLHT also
collaborates with the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB)
through six district milk unions of Karnataka. | 
