Changing the perception of Mahua/ tribal foods
Dr. Basavi Kiro is a Journalist turned Social Activist. She started her career as a Journalist with local dailies of Ranchi like Navbharat Times, Jansatta and Prabhat Khabar. In the course of her 17 years as a journalist, she has won many national awards. She has thereafter played a key role in tribal upliftment through her campaigns against Malnutrition, Anaemia and Malaria (MAM) and 3M- Mahuwa (Madhuca longifolia), Mao and Migration in tribal belt. She actively promotes Ethnomedicine and Hodopathy –herbal healing systems in rural areas to resolve women’s health problems and has been instrumental in the opening of Adivasi Aushadhalaya – herbal clinic that has cultivated lemongrass (Cymbopogon) in a hundred acres of land in Bundu. She currently runs Hodopathy Tribal Medicine Clinics in Horhap Forest Road, Mahilong, Ranchi, Jharkhand. Basavi has also represented Indian tribes and Indian tribal women at various international platforms like that of the United Nations. She is also the first to start a project on Mahuwa Flowers.
The work of Dr. Basavi began around 1996-97. She has collected the stories and organised many training programs with the tribal people, especially the practitioners to explore more on the benefits of mahuwa. Her work on mahuwa flowers is result oriented which she has compiled and published in two volumes. Dr. Basavi has employed traditional mats, old clothes or even mosquito nets to catch the falling flowers to prevent them from catching dust. The idea of Mahuwa Laddo originated from Mahuwa Latha, made from tamarind seed and mahuwa flower which she enjoyed as a child. This gave her the idea of mixing mahuwa with dry fruits and began experimenting with the new possible use of mahuwa. The successful creation of the mahuwa ladoos has provided employment to women in the pandemic lockdown. In Pungi village a big SHG group of 90 women took the training for Mahuwa ladoo, which provided an alternate livelihood instead of producing liquor. Gabharya is another place where the Munda women were able to find work through Basavi’s workshop and earn a living out of it.
Kristi Eton an American journalist who had reached out to Dr. Basavi to document her story had also visited some villages with the group. Apart from Mahuwa Ladoo they also tried to produce Mahuwa Cake which has grown popular among the local kids. Dr. Basavi was also a part of the Mahuwa Conference on 9th June 2017, where they discussed and came up with various ideas to counter the law that had limited the amount of mahuwa that can be kept at home to just five kilograms. Some of their arguments stated, “why is coal legal and mahuwa illegal?” Dr. Basavi considers it important to recognize mahuwa and its various benefits which can only help us create better opportunities for the tribal women and change the existing perception of Mahuwa as only an intoxicant.