Social change through a health revolution

Nagpur: Deep in the Naxalite-affected Darekasa village in Gondia district, an inspiring revolution is taking place since 1999. One that’s truly inspiring and not many are aware of. It’s being put in motion by Disha, an organization that helps the adivasi community of Gondia district to get timely treatment.
Darekasa, a lush green valley nestling in the confluence of the eastern Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, is home to adivasis — the original inhabitants for several centuries.When it looked like they were suffering due to lack of health facilities, Disha Arogya Kutir was born. The motive behind setting it up was to deliver primary health care as well as expert medical services to the rural communities. This, at a nominal cost and by their own people and at their doorsteps by community participation.
What began as a movement to provide better health facilities in Darekasa, started moving into other areas of tribals residence. “Tribals used to come to Disha unwell. It was quite difficult to educate them about nutritious diets,” recalls Dr Debashish Chatterji, who worked in the Maharashtra public health department for 12 years as a medical officer.
He goes on to explain, “During my first posting in Darekasa as a health officer, I realized that there was no concept of antenatal care, immunization or of seeking medical help when sick. They called their Gods or lay down to die.”
It was, therefore, common for women to die at childbirth and for their children to suffer from illnesses like diarrhoea. The villagers tried to cure their problems through ‘black magic’. There was a clearly a pressing need for some kind of intervention.
“Thus was born Disha at Darekasa village with 11 executive members which included five doctors and a pharmaceutical businessman among others. The organization decided to adopt 25 villages and it has now appointed 9 arogya doots and 2 arogya sevikas from their respective villages after giving them proper training,” says Chatterji.
The arogya doots and sevikas were imparted training to provide first aid. “The doots were provided with a bicycle, uniform and a health-kit equipped with medicines for common illnesses like cough and cold, diarohhea, fever etc, malaria blood collection slide box, anti-malaria drugs, sputum cups for suspected tuberculosis patients, dressing material for minor injuries. The sevikas were provided with delivery-kit to conduct safe home delivers. They work two hours per day in their allotted villages at the houses of those ailing,” says Chatterji.
It was no easy challenge but they were determined. “There was initially a lot of resistance to modern day health care. They were afraid of us. It was an uphill task to gain their confidence,” recalls Dr Chatterji. He went on to explain how the tribals’ trust was earned only when Disha members under their way of life.
Today, the Disha Kutir serves around 35 hamlets with a population of 12,635 tribals of around 4,000 families spread over one tehsil. It has facilities for obstetrics and surgery, in addition to medical, paediatric and general services. It is staffed by a gynaecologist and two general physicians. The nurses, lab technicians and administration staff are all tribals trained on the job.
Kishan Bohane, 77, who is a diabetic, says that since Arogya Kutir was opened, he and his family have benefited a lot. “I’m get my monthly medicine free of cost,” says five-month pregnant Lalita Madavi of Makarsara village. “I save around Rs1,000 a month on my medicines,” said Madavi, whose husband Chaitram is a farmer.
Since 1999, the NGO claims to have successfully brought maternal and infant mortality down by almost 99% and doubled the number of deliveries happening at the hospital. But it’s clearly more than health care. As a few people benefited from medicines and diagnosis, more have began to seek medical help when sick. “It’s a social revolution,” says Disha executive member Rakesh Gupta who is in the pharmaceutical business. He provides all kind of medicines to needy patients free of cost.
Apart from regular health check-ups on the second and fourth Sundays, Disha has also started organizing educational guidance camps for children of tribals.