THE CHANGING PATTERN OF THE TRADITIONAL MIDWIVES IN BENGAL SOMA MUKHOPADHYAY Midwifery is one of the oldest professions of the

world. The women who are assoc iated with this profession are known as midwives. They have been doing all the w orks related to child birth for centuries in exchange of nothing but they live i n financial crisis and face social exploitation. In present time there are many researchers who are working on exploited marginal people, but very few took inte rest in midwives and their profession. In this article I want to draw attention of every socially conscious people that how this issue become more and more prob lematic in the context of globalization. In Gilgamesh an ancient Epic of C' 2000 B.C we perhaps found the firstreferenc eof the existence and important social position of the midwives. In their treati ses, the two eminent Indian physicians Charaka and Sushrut also mentioned the re spectable social position of the midwives. Now we consider midwives as professio nals who cut umbilical cord and clean the lying in room. Charaka and Sushrut in structed to call a midwife after eleven days of chilbirth only to breastfeed the new born. According to them the midwife or wet nurse not only would come from a higher caste family but also used to be young,beautiful and used to possess a g ood moral character.So it is very strange to understand that when and how this p rofession gradually associated itself with the women of the lower strata of the society.It seems to us that according to the rigorous instruction of upper caste society of late medieval period the higher caste women abandoned the professi on of midwifery.This was no doubt very unfortunate.But one thing is very clear t hat at that time the midwives never faced any professional hazard or struggle fo r existence.They were all gladly accepted by the society for their important rol e during child birth. The actual professional crisis of the midwives started from the colonial period onward.In the first half of nineteenth century,the Christian missionaries who bl amed the native midwives and the prevailing system of delivery for the high rate of maternal and infant mortalities in our country.After the establishment of Medical College Hospitals in Calcutta in1935, the British Government wanted to introduce western medical practices in childbirth. For that purpose midwifery training programs were organized to devel op trained midwives.In this changed situation the traditional midwives in Bengal faced a serious crisis.They were completely misfit for the training program.On the other hand, the government intended to destroy our indigenous system of chil d birth. Very few traditional midwives, usually known as dais, went through this training.The fruits of this training went to the middle class women ,the widows and the anglo-indians, who became economically empowered and the native dais gr adually lost their jobs.This was the tragedy of the colonial period.Unfortunatel y the western educated women also supported the British Government by asking th e people not to engage the traditional midwives in child birth. But they did not ask for alternative jobs for their poor midwife sister.