DOI: 10.36347/sjahss.2018.v06i03.026

Pages: 664-672

Keeping in view the anthropological notion of ‘medical pluralism’, the given study strives to unravel the existence of non-medical form of healing behaviours among the selected participants. The study specifically focuses its attention on indigenous faith healing behaviours among the slum dwellers of selected urban locale. The present cross sectional study has been conducted among adult Bengal population residing in an urban slum of North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal. 197 study participants were selected for the purpose of fulfilling the objective by convenience and snow-ball sampling method. Furthermore, the present study also highlights the varied perception pertaining to such behaviours along with unveiling the various symptoms warranting the need for such healing behaviour which is strictly beyond the medical purview. The work will also reveal the influence of different socio-demographic factors on the practice and prevalence of such healing behaviour. The present work is chiefly a quantitative one. Information was collected from study participants using questionnaires along with conducting structured and semi-structured interviews whenever required. The findings were later analysed and expressed quantitatively using descriptive statistics. The given study has thus well substantiated the existence of such indigenous faith healing behaviours among the total 197 selected participants despite of sufficient presence and good access of participants towards institutionalised medical form of treatment.