By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter,
Sahebganj (Jharkhand): A new association of rural doctors has been formed for the first time in Jharkhand, one of the states with the poorest health indicators in the country. On 7 March, at a function held in Gumani town of Sahebganj district, over 100 rural medical practitioners joined the Rural Health Service Association (RHSA), formed under the auspices of the local unit of the United Milli Forum (UMF), a social and cultural organisation.
The formation of the RHSA is significant in the context of the Indian government recently announcing plans to start a new three and a half year diploma course for producing ‘community health practitioners’ to serve in rural areas. The proposed course has been opposed by many critics who say that the government should recognise medical personnel working in rural areas for many years instead of creating a special cadre that after graduation may be reluctant to go to villages, like those doing MBBS courses right now.
“There is a need to decriminalise the hundreds of thousands of medical practitioners in the country who are already practicing in rural areas and give them the support they need to do their work better’, says Dr Swapan Jana, Secretary, Society for Social Pharmacology, who attended the meeting to launch the RHSA. He points out that the number of MBBS doctors in the country is simply not enough to meet the needs of the population and whatever few qualified doctors are there are unwilling to work in rural areas, which has huge unmet healthcare needs.
The RHSA will bring together those practising allopathy, ayurveda and other medical systems in rural areas without recognition from the Medical Council of India. Though derisively referred to as ‘quacks’ by the mainstream medical community these rural doctors are the mainstay of healthcare throughout the Indian countryside and among the poor in urban areas. There are only 0.7 million MBBS graduates, less than 7 doctors per 10000 population, in the country. If the AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yunani, Siddha & Homeopathy) doctors are taken together, the total number reaches 1.4 million. Of these, there are only around 25 thousand allopathic doctors in Primary Health Centers serving a rural population of 830 million, making that an abysmally low doctor‐ patient ratio of 1:34,000). The global standard of Doctor‐Patient ratio, as laid down by WHO is 1:250.
The RHSA plans to hold regular workshops and trainings for its members in latest developments in medical science, take up community health work and fight for official recognition of the valuable work their members do in rural India.
Later this month, the RHSA along with the UMF will hold a medical camp and a workshop to draw up a health plan for the Pakur assembly constituency, which includes Sahebganj and Pakur districts. Other Indian states where there are similar organisations of unqualified rural practitioners include West Bengal, Delhi, Punjab and Andhra Pradesh.
For further information about RHSA contact: Obaidullah Chaudhary (Ph: 9835344959,
[email protected]) and Satya Sivaraman, (Ph: 09818514952, [email protected])