Rachit (name changed), a mentally challenged child, has been living in a slum near South City II for the last three years. His parents moved from Bengal to seek employment, and better healthcare services for their child. However, they soon realised that health care here is out of their reach. “The people in the neighbourhood would get very upset with Rachit and take him to a nearby night shelter and lock him in a small room. We didn’t have the money to go to the better hospitals for treatment. We didn’t want to send him to an asylum - he is the only child. But last year a few volunteers from an NGO, Neev visited our slum and took Rachit to a good hospital,” says Rachit’s mother. The condition of Rachit improved in just three months. Today he is going to a normal school and has many friends in the neighbourhood. The lack of awareness about the needs of the mentally and physically challenged children, and the lack of organised care in urban slums, is affecting the lives of many children. Despite making rapid strides in the health sector, the country is struggling to provide basic healthcare services to the needy. According to an estimate, though comprising one fourth of the country’s poor population, the urban poor have access to less than four per cent of the public primary healthcare facilities. Neev, a part of the Bharat Memorial Charitable Trust, is helping provide better healthcare facilities for the children living in the slums of Gurgaon.
Founded in Panchkula in 1996, the NGO established base in the City some five years ago. The NGO has been serving the underprivileged through scholarships, medical camps, sports events and interest free education loans; it is also supporting orphanages. It runs a school that has 100 students. About 35 students from Neev have already been mainstreamed in leading schools such as Amity International School and Delhi Public School. Interestingly, volunteers at Neev live in the slums, to better understand the issues faced by the children in the area – be it lack of healthcare facilities or the infrastructure for education. “The trustees of the NGO felt that the best way to equip the underprivileged with life skills and to empower them to face the realities of life, was to educate them. However, education is possible only when the children have are physically and mentally fit,” says Nirmala Yadav, Managing Director.
Slum dwellers suffer from adverse health conditions due to a lack of awareness, as also the opportunity – time off means the loss of a day’s wage. The NGO has therefore tried to make healthcare services available at their door, by means of a mobile service. “We need to follow a two-pronged approach. First of all we should bring quality health care services to the doorsteps of the needy; secondly, healthcare awareness and contemporary healthcare services should be promoted among the underprivileged,” feels Dr. Radhika, who has been working with the NGO for the last two years. A Mobile Medical Service is considered to be the ideal mechanism. As Neev has an association with the renowned Smile Foundation, it has initiated a healthcare programme – ‘Smile on Wheels’. It is a unique concept, wherein the NGO takes the primary healthcare services to the slums - with a special focus on children and women. The programme has already benefitted over 10,000 underprivileged children in the City and more than 2,31,000 people last year in the country. Besides, the NGO organises many health camps across the City. “The uniqueness of the model lies in its comprehensive approach – of health promotion, disease prevention and curative care,” informs Dr. Radhika.
Read More...