Making a difference

Paediatrician Dr Saraswathy Ganapathy, perhaps better known as Girish Karnad’s better half, is a personality in her own right. She came back from the US in 1981 after a stint as a New York University staffer and went back soon afterwards to complete MPH in Chicago.
While Dr Saraswathy Ganapathy did not practice medicine she has always worked in the areas of primary healthcare and prevention.While Girish Karnad is away in London looking after affairs at the Nehru Centre, Saraswathy works at the grassroots. She and a group of eminent women work in 13 villages in Kanakapura for the past seven years.
They have formed the Belaku Trust which has conducted a number of studies on sexual behaviour among teenagers in Kanakapura, infant care and feeding practices, post natal care of woman. One of the shocking discoveries that Belaku had made is that during the period of Banantana (post partum), women are almost starved and made to eat frugal meals of rice kanji and rasam.
This is because of a belief that all the ‘bad water’ that gets accumulated during pregnancy has to be expelled. Later Dr Saraswathy discovered that this was practiced in Kodagu and Dakshina Kannada as well.“You cannot change age old beliefs overnight,�says she.
The women of one of the villages adopted by the Belaku Trust make hand paper and paper products. They go by the name of Kirana. These women got together to prevent sale of arrack in their village.
Their men go to neighbouring villages to drink but by the time they get back home they are too tired or fall down on the way. This way they don’t hit or ill treat their wife and children, says Dr Saraswathy Ganapathy.