India is home to more than 300 species of snakes, with 67 species being identified as venomous. However only 15 species have reported human fatalities with the big four, namely the Spectacled Cobra, Common Krait, Russell’s viper and Saw scaled viper being responsible for maximum deaths and disabilities.

With a large number of annual mortalities, India is considered the “death by snakebite capital of the world”. A study published in 2020 estimated that from 2000 to 2019, there were around 1.2 million deaths caused by snakebites in India, with an average of 58,000 fatalities each year. However, it’s difficult to determine the exact number of snakebite deaths as many cases go unreported or untreated.

To address these issues, the Snakebite Healing and Education Society (SHE-India) was founded in 2014. This organization brings together experts from different fields, including snakebite expert doctors, human rights activists, scientists, herpetologists, bureaucrats, lawyers, NGO partners, and administrators, to work towards reducing the burden of snakebites in India. The organization’s goal is to work with all affected states to train medical teams, ASHA workers, village leaders, teachers and forest personnel, and to propagate our snakebite prevention and first-aid educational materials in 14 regional languages to raise awareness with communities and help reduce the burden.

SHE-India produced India’s first advocacy film on the snakebite burden, called “The Dead Don’t Talk,” which won an award at the International Science Film Festival in 2019.

She-India also collaborated with Swiss TPH and Vapaguide.info to create a unique teaching tool called “The Snakebite Assistant” app. The app is designed to educate First-responders, Primary Health centre doctors and nurses, Secondary Health centre (Tertiary hospitals) and the general public.

By combining community awareness with improved health infrastructure and access to specialized training, SHE-India hopes to help significantly reduce the incidence of snakebite mortalities and disabilities in India.

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COMMUNITY AWARENESS AND CAPACITY BUILDING TRAININGS
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REGIONAL LANGUAGE EDUCATIONAL CONTENT
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SNAKEBITE ASSISTANT APP DOWNLOADS
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ADVISORS

Mission

In 2009, WHO (World Health Organization) entered snakebite in the list of “Neglected Tropical Diseases.”  Despite the guidance, snake-bites have not become a potential health priority for India. This is a highly neglected area in basic health care across the country. Snakebite Healing and Education Society aims at understanding and addressing  grass root level victim issues,

the available state level health facilities and engaging the various elements including policy makers, AVS manufacturers, bureaucrats, snake bite specialists and medical professionals, rural health care personnel, civil society proponents and legal experts  in bringing attention to this eschewed subject.

Vision

Snakebite Healing and Education Society is the first initiative in India which is solely dedicated to address snake bite related issues and bring together people in various capacities on a common platform.

Snakebite is a complex issue at different levels like health care, right to life for every Indian citizen, appropriate training to the rural health care personnel, assistance to bite victims suffering from severe necrosis and tissue damage and requiring corrective surgery.

The Snakebite Healing and Education Society (SHE) will initiate a multi-pronged approach to address the snake-bite problem infesting most states of India.  The immediate objective is to create :

A: Awareness in:

  1. Educational institutions
  2. Village panchayats
  3. Social Welfare departments
  4. Block / taluk level snake awareness programs
  5. NGOs working in the Environmental and health realms to assist SHE in percolating the snakebite treatment and first-aid information to the masses.

B: Improve treatment and save lives by:

  1. Training of local level medical professionals
  2. Training of village level first aid volunteers
  3. Making available AVS village/dispensary level

SHE is presently working with grass root level people in West Bengal, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Karnataka and intends to cover Telangana, Bihar and Odisha in 2019.