When dengue to encephalitis pose an existential crisis to people in Odisha, especially when the healthcare in the hinterlands is in a wobbly state, meet lewis Dartnell of the UK, an astrobiology researcher at the University of Westminster visiting Bhubaneswar to deliver lectures to school kids. Dartnell’s award-winning work “The knowledge: How to rebuild our world from scratch” shows a beacon of hope.
Shedding light on his work that was chosen as the Sunday Times Book of the year, Dartnell said diseases pose a threat to human race; and when the human tendency is to see is to believe, inculcating a convincing knowledge among masses about the existence of ‘germs’ in one’s body or surroundings as the genesis of fatal ‘diseases’ could prove remarkable in defusing the evolving ‘healthcare crisis’ in Odisha. Significant reminder here is how the district administration has a tough time in convincing distraught families in Malkangiri to stay put in Government hospitals when Japanese Encephalitis was at its peak.
Elaborating further, Dartnell said, “Schools and Anganwadi Centres could be shaped up as working labs in States like Odisha, if a Government wishes to vision a disease-free society in near future”. Pepping up a scientific health temper and skills among masses through such intermediaries would bring a paradigm shift to health goals in backward States, he stressed.
Interestingly, when the State Government is giving much stress on skill development, it should go the Dartnell way of skilling school kids, Anganwadi workers and SHG members to work towards a mission of ensuring a disease-free Odisha at least by 2020, whereby they could be imparted with basic health and sanitation skills to accomplish the desired goals. Reason: The State healthcare is battling with huge vacancies right from doctors to pharmacists, lab technicians and nurses.
Dartnell on Tuesday was here at the SAI International School taking classes there on how to evolve life-skills among young minds, whereby they not only communicate science to masses but also convince them about their research works or share health developments. In fact, lewis Dartnell was delivering a preparatory session to students from Odisha. On Wednesday, he would sit at the KIIT from the eastern zone in Famelab competition, a global science communication competition. Winners need to qualify the national round to go for the final leg in the UK and deliver presentation in the prestigious Cheltenham Science Festival.
The British Council here has facilitated the Dartnell visit to the city as the Famelab competition is being held for the first time in Odisha. Dartnell is currently involved with the European Space Agency for the 2020 EXOMARS mission, where for the first time spectroscopy technique of famous Indian scientist CV Raman would be experimented to explore the Mars.