If systems fail, individual initiative can make a substantial difference and work as a catalyst to alter things for the better. A man in the remote tribal area in Chitrakonda block of Malkangiri district working at the Papulur Public Health Centre (PHC) has shown the way relating to the steps that can make an individual change the scenario. One man’s concern can become a concern for us all. The case relates to Omkar Hota, a doctor, working at the PHC, which has existed for about 15 years. Ordinarily, doctors posted at the PHC have been there at best for 24 hours. On one pretext or the other, they absent themselves from the station. About 90 km from the district headquarters, located in a hilly area, this PHC has poor communication and power facilities. It is also infested with Maoists and other menaces like malaria. When he was in Class-X, Hota had an occasion to visit a hospital in Balangir with his mother. He found the doctors fleecing the poor. His mother made him vow that he would become a doctor and serve the poor. He chose to do that and has been posted in remote areas.
In the present place of posting, there are no official residential quarters. Hota lives in one of the rooms at the hospital and continues to be a bachelor. According to reports, he found very few patients coming to the hospital even when they fell ill. The tribals of the area, mostly Konda Reddys and Bondas, depended on traditional medicines. After Hota joined, he started visiting the villages, communicating with people, treating them and started convincing them to come to the hospital if they fell ill. He started joining the patients in trekking the mountain roads while carrying a patient to the health centre. In a recent incident, this doctor walked 12 km to attend to a pregnant tribal woman in a remote village. The condition of the patient was serious. There was hardly any convenient method of carrying the patient to the hospital. The only means available was to carry the patient in a cot to the hospital. The doctor not only attended to the patient all the way but did not hesitate to use his shoulders to carry the burden to some extent. The woman finally made it to the hospital and both the newborn and the patient are hale and hearty.
For Dr Hota, the job is one of 24 hours involvement. After winding up the day in the hospital, he goes in the evening to the villages carrying medicines for usual ailments are rampant in the area. He examines patients, diagnoses, distributes medicines and saves lives. In the process, he creates awareness about maintaining hygiene and use of mosquito nets in preventing malaria. He found initial distrust amongst the villagers. But today, he is the saviour of the area. The health centre gets about 45 patients on an average every day. This figure used to be somewhere around 10 or 15 before Dr Hota appeared on the scene. Epidemics like malaria are on the decrease. It is reported that cases of malaria are around seven a month whereas it was about 90 a month around six months ago.
Dr Omkar Hota does not have a flashy degree from a foreign university. He is an MBBS from a private medical college in Bhubaneswar. If we had several Dr Hotas, the face of Odisha would be different. The area of darkness would be turned into an area of awareness, prosperity and good health. Available reports indicate that this is not the first time that Hota is trekking mountain routes carrying patients to the hospital. He has done this several times in the past. This doctor has hopes of specialisation in cardiology but intends to return to a tribal area to serve the poor. Dr Hota came from Balangir to the Papulur PHC in Malkangiri district. He has never enjoyed cushy postings and is yet in the process of becoming an icon for his profession.
Such instances have lessons that we must imbibe. It is the sincerity of one man that has made a substantial difference to an otherwise neglected area. We need more doctors like Dr Hota to change the face of healthcare and to compel the Government to be more cooperative. It is not correct to say that individuals are failing the system; it appears as though the system is failing individual enterprise. The apathy of the Government and lack of alertness on the part of the authorities are demonstrated through lack of infrastructure and lack of manpower at community health centres. This is true not only of far-flung areas but is also equally true for the so-called accessible and advanced areas. If a doctor, like the present one, could walk 12 km of difficult terrain and could lend his shoulder to the cot which became the makeshift stretcher to ferry the patient to the hospital, he finally covered more than 24 km in this journey of love. He is true to his oath as a doctor. It is but natural that compliments have been showered on him and he has been felicitated in recognition of his services. But we should not stop there. We have to find more Hotas to change the face of the society, which is reeling under the gross neglect of community health services.
The youth power in different remote areas has to identify and demand posting of such doctors. But there is hardly any activity on the part of the youths in this regard though they are a dominant voting power deciding the future of the State. The episode relating to Dr Hota was fortunately recorded through a mobile phone by a local youth. Consequently, authentic records were available about his activities and events. But for that, many would have not believed that all this has happened in our godforsaken State. It is time the youth power focussed its attention to the basic local necessities in the social sector. The necessities mainly are healthcare, education, road and other similar infrastructure facilities, safe drinking water, adequate provision of irrigation for farming, facilities for horticulture, animal husbandry, sericulture, etc., and a surrounding atmosphere ancillary to such activities. Each village has to sufficiently self-reliant in basic services and facilities. In the absence of that, migration and slum dwelling would become a part of our culture, however critical we may be of that trend.
Instances like the one relating to Dr Hota make one understand what Gandhi meant by saying “India lives in its villages”. But alas! Our attention is more on smart cities than on non-smart neglected rural areas. We forget that these areas provide sustenance to the white collar and other workers. We have a social obligation in ensuring that the focus is on the villages and the floodlight should remove the bottlenecks, make things smoother and happier in those areas. This requires involvement of the entire community and cannot be confined to a section. This definitely is a matter of concern for all of us!
(The writer, a Senior Advocate, is a former All India Service officer, a former diplomat, a former editor, a former President of Orissa High Court Bar Association and a former Advocate General of Odisha. jayantdas@hotmail.com)