By Abdul Ghani, Twocircles.net
Guwahati : US-based Indian Muslim Relief and Charities (IMRC) has held ten health camps for the patients of flood affected Char areas, the river islands of Brahmaputra and its tributaries, in the Kamrup and Barpeta districts of Assam.
Under ‘Medical Relief Program,’ IMRC sponsored a team of doctors, pharmacists, nurses, pathologists and around 15 community workers to reach out to the flood-affected patients in the most backward Char areas in September-October with the help of local grass-root youth voluntary organisation Jhai Foundation.
This year’s two consecutive waves of flood in June and August-September affected over two hundred thousand people across twenty five districts of Assam. Officially, at least 46 people have lost their lives in the last flood. Along with the loss of human lives, the flood water washed away huge area of crops land, houses and other immovable property along with roads, schools and other public properties affecting every aspect of life.
The team equipped with required medicines, medical instruments, pathological kits, water purifying tablets etc travelled to the most backward places on bullock carts, country boats and often on foot to reach out to the patients, stayed overnight with char and river bank community and provided medical relief through ten relief camps.
Though the devastating flood water of river Brahmaputra and its tributaries have receded; the sufferings of the flood victims have not healed so far. The greatest irony of flood in Assam is that this has become an annual event and most of the victims are from most marginalised socio-economic groups.
Char areas have suffered the worst of the recurrent flood and perpetual indifference of ruling establishments. In the Brahmaputra basin, the char areas extend over 3608 sq km, or 4.6 per cent of the geographical area of the state of Assam. The Char areas are distributed over the entire course of river Brahmaputra from Sadiya in the East to Dhubri in the west and distributed across 23 sub-divisions of 14 districts, with 2251 villages in 299 Gaon Panchayats. These chars are considered as the most backward areas in Assam. Around 68 per cent of the people here are Below Poverty Line (BPL), literacy rate as low as 19%.
Along with poverty and illiteracy, health is one of the core sectors which get severally affected by the flood every year. Char areas hardly have any health infrastructure and government intervention. Often, post-flood health hazards turn to epidemic. In such a grime situation, IMRC decided to be with the victims of Assam flood in the time of distress.
A total of 1,608 patients were served in ten camps stretching over a month. The patients were examined by qualified doctors, rapid pathological tests were conducted and proper counseling was done by professionally trained health professionals.
Most of the diseases developed in the aftermath of the flood. “A large number people are suffering from diseases like fungal skin infection, bacterial skin infection, diarrhoea, respiratory problems, viral fever and many others,” said Dr Emdad Hussain, one of the attending doctors.
Starting from water-related diseases to skin disease, there is no dearth of illness among these people. Dr Hussain also said that several diseases have developed because a large numbers of people live in a congested area. “The contagious diseases are common in such situations. We are hopeful that we can help these people to get rid of it,” he added.
Medical professionals attending to the victims have also found rise of joint pains and back pains among the victims. They said that due to the emergency, the villagers have to work more-like carrying their belongings to safer places which results in body pain.
Analyzing the medical records, one of the functionaries of Jhai Foundation also informed that post disaster trauma, extensive physical labour, lack of proper food and hygiene have affected the overall wellbeing of flood victims and ‘general weakness’ found to be one of the top ten health issues among the patients.
Atique Fahmi, one of the community workers, thanked IMRC-Jhai Foundation for organizing the health camps. “The whole journey was very challenging and troublesome, at the same time it was rewarding. This is one of life time experience to understand the sufferings of people who are living in between water and sand of Brahmaputra, nobody bothers about their plights,” Fahmi said.
Indian Muslim Relief & Charities (IMRC) is a US based non-profit organization which began in 1981 and helps run several programmes throughout the country in partnership with over 100 organizations. It focuses on providing education, emergency relief, medical & legal aid, shelter and food for the needy. IMRC has been at the forefront of providing immediate relief to affected victims of the 2015 Nepal earthquake, 2014 Kashmir Floods, 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots, 2012 Assam riots, and other natural/man-made calamities.