Hemchand Manjhi, a respected traditional medicine practitioner, has announced his decision to return his Padma Shri award. This move comes in response to increasing threats from Naxalite groups, which have left him fearing for his safety. Manjhi received the Padma Shri in recognition of his significant contributions to traditional medicine.
Manjhi is a famous traditional practitioner ‘Vaidyaraj’of Narayanpur district, Chhattisgarh providing affordable healthcare to villagers for over 5 decades. Born on 1 January, 1953 in a poor family, Shri Manjhi could go to school only for a day and due to house hold chores and family pressure, he left study and started grazing cattle. . His father passed away in his childhood. To bear the responsibility of the family, he started working as a fire watcher in the nursery section of the forest department of the village.
During his working period, Shri Manjhi's health deteriorated significantly and there was no improvement in his health despite several treatments at the local level. Then one day he had a divine dream directing him to particular herbs of the forest for its solution. The next morning he set out towards the forest to search for these herbs and identified those herbs in the forest. . He brought and prepared the herbs himself and quickly got good health benefits after its intake. Manjhi left the work of fire watcher and engaged himself in serving the people selflessly. He has been doing traditional health care since the age of 15-20 years. People come from every corner of the country for treatment of incurable disease.