Silvassa: A year since the launch of the village adoption programme by the NAMO Medical Education and Research Institute in Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, its students have become ambassadors of holistic health, providing basic healthcare services and informing about flagship schemes of the government. A team of students from the medical college visits houses in the villages in the region every week and also raises awareness on superstition and ill beliefs among the population.
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to inaugurate on April 17 the new campus of the institute, the only medical college in Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu which has become a symbol of growing aspirations of the people of the region, around 40 per cent of whom are tribals.
Starting its operations from a leased building, the institute is now ready to shift to its own campus — spread across 35 acres in Silvassa. The village adoption programme was launched by the Administrator of the Union territory in April last year. The programme was initially started with 505 students who were allotted 50 tribal villages in the district of Dadra and Nagar Haveli.
A team of 10 students per village with one teaching faculty as a mentor visits the families almost every week. Now, additional 177 students of MBBS (4th batch) making a total of 682 MBBS students and 293 students of nursing college have been included who cover all the 70 villages of Dadra and Nagar Haveli. Kusum Dadhav, a first-year medical student from the tribal community, said,
Many of the villagers in the region have this superstition of tattooing a special mark in the stomach area of a newborn to ward off evil spirits and keep the ailments at bay. The tattooing can lead to infections and is just a belief and has no scientific basis. We go to villagers and explain to them how such practices have no scientific basis and can be rather harmful for their health. Some of the families of late have understood and discontinued the practice.
Eighty-year-old Bayajiben Devibhai Kharpadiya from Pati village said she had started losing her sight and didn’t know what to do. It was during one of the visits by the medical students that they spotted her condition and checked her eye. They coordinated and got her cataract surgery done at the Shri Vinoba Bhave Civil Hospital attached to the NAMO Medical Education and Research Institute.
The surgery was done on time thanks to their visit.
Another native Neeru said, “These medical students come and educate us about cold, fever and skin infections. They also do health check ups and give us medicines. They tell us about the importance of hygiene and communicable and non-communicable diseases. Besides health, they also inform us about other schemes of the government.” This initiative of adopting villages by the medical students was also appreciated by the prime minister in his Mann Ki Baat address last September.
As part of the village adoption programme, students act as a first point of contact for any health and welfare related affairs of the villages, Dr Ramchandra Goyal, the dean of NAMO Medical Education and Research Institute, said. Dr. Goyal said,
The aim is to create awareness among the villagers regarding different public health and welfare schemes run by the central government and Union territory administration and to provide assistance for various schemes to reach the villagers.
Besides, the health schemes such as Pradhan Mantri Matrutva Vandana Yojana, Ayushman Bharat – Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Jan Aushadhi Kendra, Janni Suraksha Yojana, we also tell them about the other government schemes such as Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana Gramin, Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi, Atal Pension Yojana etc, she said.
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(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
NDTV – Dettol have been working towards a clean and healthy India since 2014 via the Banega Swachh India initiative, which is helmed by Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan. The campaign aims to highlight the inter-dependency of humans and the environment, and of humans on one another with the focus on One Health, One Planet, One Future – Leaving No One Behind. It stresses on the need to take care of, and consider, everyone’s health in India – especially vulnerable communities – the LGBTQ population, indigenous people, India’s different tribes, ethnic and linguistic minorities, people with disabilities, migrants, geographically remote populations, gender and sexual minorities. In wake of the current COVID-19 pandemic, the need for WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) is reaffirmed as handwashing is one of the ways to prevent Coronavirus infection and other diseases. The campaign will continue to raise awareness on the same along with focussing on the importance of nutrition and healthcare for women and children, fight malnutrition, mental wellbeing, self care, science and health, adolescent health & gender awareness. Along with the health of people, the campaign has realised the need to also take care of the health of the eco-system. Our environment is fragile due to human activity, which is not only over-exploiting available resources, but also generating immense pollution as a result of using and extracting those resources. The imbalance has also led to immense biodiversity loss that has caused one of the biggest threats to human survival – climate change. It has now been described as a “code red for humanity.” The campaign will continue to cover issues like air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and sanitation workers and menstrual hygiene. Banega Swasth India will also be taking forward the dream of Swasth Bharat, the campaign feels that only a Swachh or clean India where toilets are used and open defecation free (ODF) status achieved as part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, can eradicate diseases like diahorrea and the country can become a Swasth or healthy India.
