We contribute to our communities’ health and cultural and social development
We are based predominantly in rural Rajasthan where medical or health facilities are few.
In any event, our communities have little available money for paying medical bills. When
epidemics break out, our communities in the past received little to no support, which has
had tragic consequences, especially for the most vulnerable. We are therefore the primary
health care providers to the villagers.
We have our own names for the
various
ailments
and
have
particular ways of understanding of
how the ailments occur. We treat a
range of seasonal, common and
chronic ailments, including coughs
and colds, diarrhea, broken bones,
skin diseases, jaundice, various
types of asthma, pneumonia,
wounds, snake bites, scorpion
stings, scabies, stomach ache,
malaria, leucorrhea, and gastritis.
The women among us also assist
with childbirth and pre- and postpostnatal care. Each one of us specializes in particular kinds of ailments, with overlaps of
knowledge between us. When someone approaches one Guni with a particular illness that
another Guni has more knowledge about, we refer them to that Guni.
We are also asked for advice on problems in family relationships, village disputes and
spiritual matters because of our wisdom. The female Gunis are particularly respected in the
communities and have been able to use their status to change social customs, leading to the
empowerment of women.
Some of us also have ethno-veterinary knowledge for treating animals. Animal hospitals are
few and far between and often when the animal falls ill, it cannot walk and it is too
expensive to transport it to the veterinary hospital. Thus the only realistic treatment is local.
Notably, we treat some of the livestock keepers’ important breeds of sheep and camels, and
therefore we also help conserve important animal genetic resources.
We develop traditional knowledge and share it according to our ecological, spiritual
and cultural values
Most of us have learned our initial knowledge from Sadhus (ascetics), from our forefathers
and mothers or a Guni with whom we trained. Some of us are self-taught and have learned
by sharing and exchanging knowledge with other Gunis. Regardless of the way we have
learned, we are united in having a deep connection with nature. Once that connection is
established, a single-minded focus on healing and an openness to the world as our teacher
has lead us to build on our knowledge via wisdom we have received in a dream- or trancestate through intuition and experimentation.
We feel we have a duty to ensure the preservation of our knowledge by sharing it with
others. We do so with other Gunis and with disciples on the basis that it must not be