Taking healthcare to Bodo hinterland

Action North East Trust, an NGO, is helping the poor in some of the remotest areas in Assam.

For the people of Amteka and Malivita "" two small villages in the newly created Chirang district in Bodoland Territorial Council in Assam "" falling ill due to a minor ailment, would mean a question of life and death.

Bina Basumatary, a health worker in Amtika, would vouch for this. She is, in fact, a health worker only because healthcare services in these villages are virtually non-existent, as are electricity, roads, and other infrastructure. The first pulse polio immunisation programme was held in Malivita only in November 2006.

Hardly any semblance of the government delivery system existed in these villages prior to the political settlement of the Bodoland problem in 2003. However, the government's apathy continues as far as providing basic services are concerned.

The nearest government hospital for Amteka is at Bijni, a distance of 60 Km. But because of pathetic roads, the journey can well become an endless one. There is no pucca road and there are three shallow rivers on the way which have no bridges.

Despite these difficult conditions, an NGO, Action North East Trust (ANT), is trying to provide minimum healthcare services to the people of these areas.

ANT has trained and developed a group of health workers. It has also set up a few blood testing laboratories. The laboratories conduct tests for malaria, haemoglobin and pregnancy, among others.

Electricity still being a distant dream for these villages, the labs run on solar energy. According to Marshal Narzary, laboratory assistant of Amteka Lab, on an average, 15 to 20 people come for tests daily, and the figures go up slightly in summers.

The health workers don't get paid. The NGO runs on the capital infused by its three trustees. Ford foundation, however, provided aid for some of its projects.

One of the projects undertaken by the NGO is staging of plays to spread awareness about public health. But the villagers are appreciative of the laboratories more than anything else the NGO does for them.

Sunil Kaul, a founder trustee and also a former Army doctor, says he deployed his bare-footed doctors in the remote areas due to their sheer "fondness to serve."

ANT, at present, has 45 health workers and four blood testing laboratories in the villages of Chirang district. It is planning to set up eight more labs in a short time. It procures drugs manufactured by Low Cost Standard Therapeutics, a Baroda-based NGO that produces low cost medicines to keep those affordable to the poor.