The river island
of Assam, which remains disconnected from the mainland during the most critical
days of life, i.e., during the flood, has no other alternative to rely on for
health emergencies other than the boat clinics and it is these boat clinics
that have always been playing a crucial role towards the healthcare of this
part of the state. The rural assam, especially, the rural and remote river
islands of the state have always been subjected to suffer from the dearth of
proper healthcare facilities which has resulted into massive damage done to
life in that remote part of the state. People are complled to suffer
deteriorasting health conditpons and ultimately die lackig proper medication
and treatment. On such grounds, the only ray of hope the poor people of the
river island are availing at this present age is the boat clinic, which, as
suggested by the name, is a moving clinic on boat and is the only medium to
reach the sufferers living in the remote areas.
As is officially
known, there are more than 2000 river islands in Brahmaputra and not all of
those are situated in a near distance to the hospitals. Even for many of those
villagers, reaching the nearest hospital would take many hours. On such grounds,
in emergency situations like in case of maternal pain, diseases of infancy etc,
one cannot hope to rush to the hospitals but to take shelter in the boat
clinics which are the only sources of medication for one.
The first boat
clinic to operate in the remote river islands and to opt for healthcare of its
people was named “Akha”, or Hope that started operating in 2005 from Dibrugarh
district. The pioneering mind behind this concept of boat clinics was an
enterprising journalist, named Sanjoy Hazarika. According to Hazarika “the
service should go to people rather than people coming to the service”.
Now there are boat
clinics in 13 districts in Assam and a team of 250 people is divided into 15
units. Each of these units includes doctors, nurses and community workers.
Keywords: Assamese news paper Khabar,
Assamese Daily Newspaper, Assamese Newspaper Online, Online Assamese Paper,
Dainik Janambhumi Newspaper, Assamese Newspaper
For more news, visit: www.thejanambhumi.com
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