Dhanvantari Seva Yatra: An all Encompassing Health Campaign for North-East

Dhanvantari Seva Yatra (DSY) is a mega free health campaign which has been organised almost all over North-East India (Except Sikkim) by the National Medicos Organisation (NMO) and Seva Bharati Purvanchal (SBP) since the year 2005.

With the sweet memories of ancient sage Dhanvantari, the founder of Ayurveda and the preceptor of health, happiness and tranquillity, the Seva Yatra was named as Dhanvatari Seva Yatra to provide health services with the free distribution of medicines, creating health awareness, hygiene and health education amongst the various backward societies of North-Eastern states by the doctors and voluntary paramedical workers. The health programme is organised annually for 7 days. Some medical camps of Dhanvatari Seva Yatra are held near China, Bhutan, Myanmar and Bangladesh.

Till now these two Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) had successfully organised seventeen such Seva Yatras in the remotest villages of North-East India covering 3,588 villages giving benefit to 2,65,270 patients with involvement of 767 doctors and 819 medical students.

This year, like previous years, Dhanvatari Seva Yatra is organised from February 7 to 14, where 160 health camps are planned. About 130 doctors and medical students from outside the state and 50 doctors and medical students will participate in these health camps.

Last year Dhanvantari Seva Yatra was conducted in the month of March with the involvement of 85 doctors and medical students, where 19,073 patients were benefited by 74 numbers of free medical camps, which carried more relevance because of the CoronaVirus Infection outbreak throughout the globe. There was much ignorance about the disease in the remote areas and villages; medical teams visiting the villages with their professional knowledge tried to educate the people about their ignorance about the Corona Virus and taught them about Do’s and Don’ts about the disease.

It started with 9 enthusiastic doctors from Banaras Hindu University and Nagaland in May 2005. They were divided into 5 teams and sent to various camps in Assam, Nagaland and Meghalaya villages. In 6 days, they treated more than 4000 patients from 128 villages.

Doctors and medical students (both MBBS and BDS) from all over the country and abroad with specialization in different branches of medical science, participate in this noble venture voluntarily and impart their service by involving in these Seva Yatra. The seven-day Yatra starts with an inauguration programme on day 1 followed by sending medical teams with medicines to the remotest villages. Medical teams used to stay in houses of local villagers throughout their health camping where they provide free medicines and give health awareness among the people of the village in an evening meeting that is attended by most of the villagers and the village headman.

Blessed with natural wealth and enchanting beauty, North-East India comprises mountains and hills, evergreen forests, numerous rivers, and abundant mineral resources. Ironically, most of this region’s inhabitants live in remotest tribal villages, spending their days through endless poverty and struggling for existence. Many of the tribal people have no access to modern medical facilities and cannot bear the heavy expenses. Despite big plans and constant efforts, the government still needs to walk a long distance, to provide basic education, communication and medical facilities in the rural and remote villages; rather it’s an arduous task. The scenario was even worse when the Seva Yatra was started in the year 2005.

To construct a beautiful and healthy society, the National Medicos Organisation and Seva Bharati, Purvanchal jointly found the Dhanvantri Seva Yatra project to arrange regular periodical free Medical Camps in the remotest tribal villages by the doctors and the paramedical volunteers.

Volunteers from the villages informed the people of their village and the people of nearby villages so that nobody could miss this opportunity. Doctor’s visit is an extremely rare event in such areas. The ordinary villagers had an extraordinary enthusiasm about these medical camps. They cooperated and made arrangements in their villages for medical camps, made temporary dispensaries, served local delicacies to the doctors, and even in one village, the village youths prepared a five-kilometre track in the forest for the Doctor’s vehicle and reconstructed an old school for the medical camp. Doctors were amazed by such enthusiasm and hospitality by the villagers. Most of the doctors are young, and they came for the first time in the north-east. The simple life, rich culture, colourful folk dance and music, wonderful food, and enchanting beauty of north-east won Doctors’ hearts who never been to such beautiful places and never met such wonderful people. They served the poor villagers and made a strong and intimate relationship with them; realising how much these people need them, they like to come again and again.

There is a huge crowd gathered in almost all the medical camps for the treatment. The numbers of female patients were more than male, and mostly they were mothers. Women work here in the harsh conditions in fields during day time; dehydration and improper diet makes them weak and pale. Anaemia is common among females in the whole north-east, and malaria is feared to be a deadly outbreak. Every year, several thousands of people die due to malaria. Malnutrition and worm infestation are most common among infants. Besides scabies, infestation is commonly found in all age groups. Without medical facilities and awareness, even a simple disease becomes severe and eventually leads to death in such areas.

In many camps, a team of “Arogya Mitras” assisted the doctors in their work and they acted as interpreters in translating the local language. Equipped with emergency medicines, they are trained by professional doctors in Allopathy and Homeopathy system of medicine to ensure villagers’ basic health-care related problems and provide First-Aid and in complex cases and emergencies; they made arrangements for shifting the patient to a professional doctor or nearby hospitals. Due to an inadequate number of doctors, most of the populations, mainly in rural and remote areas, are bereft with the basic medical facilities. To serve a large number of people, we need more doctors and hospitals. It is difficult to place a doctor in every village and although, most of the Doctors are unwilling to work in rural areas. Under these scenarios, the Arogya Mitras is a very noble and successful project for rural and poor areas.

National Medicos Organisation is a leading organisation of qualified doctors and medical students functioning throughout the country. Since its inception in 1977, NMO is working untiringly in providing dedicated voluntary health services primarily to interior villages through Seva activities and with its slogan “Swathya Seva – Rashtra Seva”. The NMO intends to promote Seva, patriotism, Bharatiya culture and Sanshkar among doctors and budding medical students.

Seva Bharati Purvanchal is a free service providing voluntary organisation working in Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, and other North-East India parts. Founded in 1998 in Guwahati, Assam with some eminent social workers of the state, the organisation was established to provide guidance and assistance to the youth, women and poorer sections of the society, especially the Tribal population tea tribes. Seva Bharati Purvanchal is dedicated to the well being of the society and has been working actively in the field of rural development, vocational training, health, education and relief and rehabilitation of people during natural disasters. The organisation’s primary objective is to empower the people so that they can take up constructive activities for all round development of the society and the nation as a whole.

Immense but inadvertent lapses need to be rectified in a war-footing manner. The initiative should be taken by the enthusiastic and energetic youths of our country, newly budded Doctors in particular. Dhanvantari Seva Yatra is a humble endeavour not only to extend free transient health care services to the villagers of rural and remote areas of North-East region but also to inculcate the sense of social responsibility and commitment amongst the newly budding doctors to provide every individual of the society with sound health and mind with selfless devotion and dedication which was envisaged by our predecessors like Swami Vivekananda and shall not only be worth contributory to national integration but also in the comprehensive concept of national reconstruction.

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