Prevention and Cure from around the Home: Homestead Forests and Primary Health Care in Rural Bangladesh

This paper explores the inter-linkages between homestead forests, health care and the rural people of Bangladesh. In rural Bangladesh, where poverty is endemic, ill health is widespread. Yet, the provision of primary health care is perfunctory, to say the least. So, how do people get by? In this paper, we look at the role the so-called homestead forests, i.e. the trees, shrubs, plants and other ‘gifts of nature’ that grow around peoples’ homes, play in providing valuable, often the only, means of preventing and/or curing many common physical ailments. A brief socio-anthropological survey of herbal medicines is conducted first to background the importance humankind has historically placed on nature in the matter of health care. The place of such medication in the culture of the Indian subcontinent is explored next. Data from field surveys conducted in four Bangladeshi villages are then analysed to show how homestead forests meet the demands of health care in rural Bangladesh. Implications for public policy in regard to homestead forests and their contribution to health care are also addressed in the paper.