KAUJAGERI  (GADAG DISTRICT): An age-old belief of curing chicken pox has come alive at a village in Gadag where parents, instead of taking their ailing children to doctors, are taking them to temples for treatment. Kaujageri in Ron taluk has a population of 5,000 and is located 45 km from Gadag.

Many children have stopped going to schools in fear of chicken pox. The villagers feel the outbreak of chicken pox (Sitale Sidubu in Kannada) in their village is a curse that has invited the wrath of the Goddess.
Two temples — where the main deities are Durgavva and Dyamouvva — are where the infected kids are being taken for ‘treatment’.The treatment is a five-day course, where the children are made to beg jowar from five different houses. On the fifth day, the jowar is applied on the body of the children suffering from chicken pox. Later, the children are wrapped in neem leaves and smoke passing through cow dung is blown on them. The children light a lamp in front of the Goddess.

The ‘treatment’ has become a headache for the district health department, who are now trying to convince the villagers not to go for it. So far, 42 confirmed cases of chickenpox have been reported in the village. A health officer said that the villagers are refusing to give antibiotics to their children who are suffering from chicken pox. Instead, they argue that the age-old practice is enough to cure their kids.

Koujalagi GP member Sureshagouda Patil said that chicken pox has been affecting a lot of their children and they are living with fear. “We demand the Health Department to take some urgent action in this regard,” he said. Taluk Health officer M B Patil said that the department has supplied Amoxicillin tablets. “But 90% of the kids have not been given the tablets by their parents who opt for treatment at temples,” he said.

DHO N S Honakeri said  officials are visiting the village on a regular basis and trying to convince the villagers to go for medical treatment.