Mobile 1000 Programme
India has more than 600,000 villages and only 22,000 primary healthcare centres for all the villagers across the country. About 30% of the village population has to travel 30km to avail the primary health facility. No medical care facility is available even for cold cough, diarrhoea or Malaria. Adding to this no proper transportation facility is available to patients.
“We have introduced Mobile 1000 programme – a convenient and free of cost hospital at the doorstep. A mobile healthcare van is operated by a doctor, pharmacist and driver and currently there are 85 vans in operation with each covering 20 villages a week. Thus, more than two million people are able to avail these services annually. Presently, these vans operating in 12 states have GPS tracking facility.
“We have got very good response from people and the vans run at 90% uptime. The 10% fluctuation comes because of manpower unavailability at the right time.”
Other Initiatives and future plans…
“We have e-Learning programs, where students are taught through interactive video tutorials. This is for children studying in Std I to Std X. This also helps raise awareness at the grassroots level. The videos consisting of actual images and demos with detailed description, help improve their IQ level.
“It has been observed that the e-Learning classes help achieve better academic results by around 30%. Presently, e-Learning classes are being provided to 43 schools in Aurangabad and Thane district.
“We also have a World Peacekeepers’ Movement to spread world peace/harmony. About nine lakh peacekeepers are supporting this movement on facebook. It is a part of the world peace army. At present, we rank sixth and aim to reach the third or fourth position. We are adding about 1000 peacekeepers a day. The movement is small but a significant step towards achieving world peace and harmony.
“We believe in whatever good we do to others, we get peace in return”.
“Moksha, another initiative taken earlier, has been discontinued as we failed in reducing the price of sanitary napkins from two rupees to one rupee. Through Moksha we wanted to hit the bottom of the pyramid at the village level but we could not succeed.
“We have Shuddhu water purification tablets in our agenda and Khel khel mein toy library which we are about to start in eight urban slums areas of Delhi. Children aged between five to 10 years come with toys, and we teach them good values and good habits. Now we are bringing this to Mumbai slums too.”
Collaboration & Coordination
To meet the rising healthcare challenge, there is need for serious collaboration and coordination between the Central & State governments, NGOs and privates/public companies. Governmen
ts have got funds, private companies have the expertise in efficient management and NGOs have got efficient, skilled and passionate manpower. “Hence, with appropriate collaboration and coordination among the three, we can definitely improve the situation in record time. There will be an accountability for each then.
With ‘Swachchh Bharat’ as its mission, the present government is very pro-active on sanitation. At present, policies are just being drafted, implementation is yet to begin. The policies are in the right direction – towards better sanitation. Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu has also extended full support for bio-toilet installations. “We have not been approached so far, but if approached we will help install bio-toilets to fulfil the mission.
“In the ‘Clean Ganga’ project, we can install bio-toilets around the river that will curb the waste at the source itself and such waste won’t reach to the river and help keep the Ganga clean.”
