Getting a holistic view of the lives of the people: Opting for different approach to healthcare among tribal communities – Chhattisgarh

The distance to healing
A healthcare system set up by a group of doctors is the only ray of hope for tribals in this corner of Chhattisgarh | To view more photos and read the full article, click here >>
Photo Essay by Vivek Muthuramalingam, livemint.com, Dec 19 2015
The JSS is a not-for-profit set up in 1996 by a group of nine doctors, five of whom were pursuing their master’s at the Delhi-based All India Institute of Medical Sciences (Aiims) at the time. Instead of plotting their way to plush clinics in metros, they put their heads together to set up a healthcare system in a much neglected tribal region of Bilaspur district. “We went around the country identifying places where doctors were needed most and, after three years of exploration, decided to establish ourselves in Chhattisgarh with the help of local groups,” says Yogesh Jain, one of the founders. The need for primary and secondary medical care was all too evident, and the group was keen to put in place an effective, community-based healthcare system with preventive medicine at its core. Four of the founding members, including Dr Jain, are still practising in Ganiyari.
The not-for-profit began slowly, trying to get a holistic view of the lives of the people it intended to work amongst—the social structures of the tribal groups, their customs and rituals, agricultural practices and their implications on diet, areas of disengagement with the system, and a clear mapping of the prevalent health issues in the area such as “under-nutrition”, maternal health, tuberculosis, malaria and snake bite. Dr Jain says they leased the land on which the hospital stands today from the government in May 1999; it already had structures built for an irrigation colony. In just a year, as the organization, its supporters and sponsors grew, it turned into a referral hospital. An operation theatre was added the next year.
Today, the JSS is funded by grants, donations from trusts, primarily the Tata trusts, as well as private donors in India and abroad, who contribute via a network called “Friends of JSS”. […]
The JSS has also set up three sub-centres in the far-flung areas of the tiger reserve, in Shivtarai, Bamhani and Semariya, to dispense basic medical care to people living on the fringes of the forest. […]

Source: Photo Essay: The distance to healing – Livemint
Address: https://www.livemint.com/Leisure/OJ1ni7qTkyUOeYzpTknTNP/The-distance-to-healing.html
Date Visited: Sun Dec 20 2015 16:50:59 GMT+0100 (CET)

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