Dept. of Social Work, Delhi University, New Delhi.
This paper concentrates upon the indigenous knowledge on medicine and health care among the indigenous communities in order to understand the scenario and issues concerning indigenous medicine after the development carnage under the New Economic Policy and its submission to the powers of globalization has led to a process of conscious and systematic annihilation of the first people – the indigenous communities- of this country. A focused contemplation on indigenous medicine users us into the concerns with the loss of medicinal plants and knowledge about their probable uses. In this regard, the many economic changes experienced by the world during the late 1980’s and early 1990’s have opened a new chapter. This is so because globalization is not merely an economic issue; it is loaded with social and political subtleties affecting the society, culture and the very development process of the people in general and the weaker ones in particular.
