“When the Doctor is Away”

Objective:

To provide accessible health services, promote disease prevention, and improve nutrition and hygiene awareness among marginalized “Mushahar” mahadalit communities.

Description:

Trained Community Health Volunteers conduct regular health check-ups, counseling, and referrals across closed, underserved rural areas. Initiatives include nutritional monitoring at crèches and menstrual hygiene education.

Key Challenges:

  • Due to the absence of an Auxiliary Nurse Midwife (ANM), Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA), Health Sub-Centre, and Anganwadi Centre, healthcare services remain largely inaccessible.
  • Transportation is difficult because of the dense forest, heavy Naxalite activity, and inaccessible roads.
  • Lack of first aid knowledge has led to local rural doctors overcharging
  • Some villages are located far from the nearest hospital, and there is still no operational Health Sub-Centre or permanent health worker in the Bhimbandh
  • Institutional deliveries are lacking due to these healthcare access

Key Activities:

  • Organize free health check-ups and counselling sessions from time to time.
  • Provide fever and blood pressure checks, dress injuries, and offer counselling on the prevention of malaria, diarrhoea, diabetes, hypertension, and other diseases through trained voluntary community health workers in selected villages.
  • Raise community awareness about better healthcare practices, hygiene, and disease prevention measures.
  • Help seriously ill individuals access appropriate
  • Coordinate with community members and the health department to ensure access to government health services.

Key Achievements:

  • Treated 575 individuals for injuries and checked 216 people for fever through voluntary health workers.
  • Identified 94 patients with serious diseases and linked them to government hospitals for treatment.
  • Reduced the community’s dependence on rural doctors (quack) by strengthening local health services.
  • Examined 464 people through free health check-up
  • Increased awareness in the community about preventing diseases such as diarrhoea, malaria, jaundice, and worm infestation, along with promoting healthcare and hygiene practices.
  • Educated 450 adolescent girls and women on menstrual hygiene and distributed sanitary napkins.
  • Built trust among villagers by consistently providing free and reliable health services.
  • Encouraged rural community health workers to become more proactive and supportive of one