Vaidya Lomesh Bachchh, Korba -Chhattisgarh

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In Korba district of Chhattisgarh, where dense forests meet quiet villages, a humble healer is providing accessible primary healthcare, one herb, one patient, and one generation at a time. Vaidya Lomesh Bachchh, a certified traditional community health provider under the VCSTCHP scheme by TDU-Personnel Certification Body (PrCB) in collaboration with Quality Council of India (QCI) has been practicing indigenous medicine for over 53 years. His journey began when he was just six, learning from his grandfather and father, living in the forest area, surrounded by nature’s pharmacy. Today, at 70, Vaidya Bachchh embodies not only deep-rooted wisdom but a vision for sustainable, inclusive healthcare.

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From the time as a young learner aged 6 years with his prolific grandfather Vaidyaratna Daulatram Bachchh (a title conferred in the British India for excellence in Traditional Knowledge from the Hindu Vishwavidyalay, Allahabad), father Vaidyaratna Jodhram Bachchh who was also a traditional healer, Mr Bachchh has maintained a patient registry of over 40 years, including families who’ve consulted him for generations, especially for vata-origin diseases and common ailments.

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At his home, Vaidya Lomesh Bachchh makes fresh medicinal preparations daily with support from his family and 15 students, each learning the skills hands-on, starting at sunrise. The Bachchh family maintains a home herbal garden and a small medicinal plant cultivation area, supplementing their supplies with regulated forest collection in partnership with the Chhattisgarh Forest Department.

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His fee is heartfelt, no charges for consultation, patients contribute what they can though medicines are priced nominally. For those bedridden, he does home visits and for those beyond his skills, he suggests hospital referrals, often escorting them personally. How does he manage to do all of these with the earning he makes with medicines only, I ask. He meets my eyes, half amused by the question, and replies with quiet conviction: “This service has run through our veins for generations. Every medicine is first offered to the Lord, blessed with prayer, and then given to patients with sincere hopes for their healing. It’s not business—it’s dedication and devotion. And the divine has always looked after us. We've always had enough. We always will.”

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While the community he served always trusted his skill, official recognition set him apart. The Voluntary Certification Scheme for Traditional Community Healthcare Providers (VCSTCHP) didn’t change how his villagers saw him. It changed how the outside world did. Patients from cities began seeking him out, recognizing the distinction between a “quack” and a practitioner of genuine, time-tested knowledge, a sense of pride for the younger generations to follow their ancestral path.

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Vaidya Bachchh isn’t alone in his healing journey, his daughter Renuka, a dynamic 30-year-old healer, walks beside him in their clinic at village Nonbira carrying forward the legacy and goodwill of her ancestry embedded in their community. She also attends with her father patients at Sanjeevani Clinic in Kosabari, a community project initiated by the Chhattisgarh Forest Department, sustained by expert TCHPs like Vaidya Bachchh, his daughter and many traditional practitioners

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Renuka began learning traditional health practices at age 8, from her grandfather Vaidyaratna Jodhram Bachchh and then her father, received certification as a Village Botanist in 2017, and earned a Diploma in Panchakarma Therapy from TDU in 2019. After training at IAIM Hospital in TDU, she spent two years working in Ayurveda treatment centers in Bangalore under expert Ayurveda Physicians, to return home in 2021, choosing being useful to her community than to big city life.

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Today, she offers external therapies such as Janu Basti, Kati Basti, Patrapinda Sweda, Pariseka etc, especially for women suffering from ageing-related musculoskeletal issues, sciatica, varicose veins, and chronic pain. Her presence in clinics has made traditional knowledge more approachable and accessible, especially for women in her village and nearby areas.

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Renuka’s journey is further strengthened by her husband, Dr. Praveen Srivas, a BAMS doctor. Together, this family is combining Ayurveda and Traditional Knowledge to create deeper, more holistic care for their community. Whether treating patients side-by-side or advancing awareness through outreach, their collaboration embodies a powerful synergy, clinical rigor meets ancestral wisdom, amplifying impact across both villages and clinic.

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Renuka also makes herbal soaps, oils, and gels, a skill she acquired from training in Mumbai. With pride, she shows off her Titan watch, her first self-earned purchase, a symbol of independence and possibility. Her story is now inspiring other women in nearby villages to learn, earn, and lead.

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Through engagements with FRLHT- TDU, State Biodiversity Board, and various healer networks, they continue to learn, evolve, and contribute, bridging local knowledge with national networks.

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What Vaidya Lomesh Bachchh and Renuka represent is more than traditional healing—it’s a model of socially-rooted healthcare education. It proves that knowledge passed through generations, when paired with structured certification, capacity-building, can uplift communities, transform public health, and revitalise entire ecosystems of traditional wisdom.

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But the bigger impact? Youth engagement. Certification brought legitimacy, and with it, a more respectable position to the practice of traditional medicine. More young people has begun to see it as a knowledge worth learning, a skill that can give them respectable, impactful and satisfying career that can also provide an income to support their families. A sprout of hope to keep up the tradition of health knowledge

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Their story shows that academia and tradition are not at odds, they’re collaborators. And if we truly want inclusive healthcare, it starts by acknowledging and enabling the people who’ve kept us well, long before the hospitals and degrees arrived.

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Author – Dr Inde TG, TDU

Photo credits – Vd Lomesh Bachch