Slumdwellers throng Arogya Abhiyaan health camps……….Pritha Chatterjee
Kalyani Rane, 36, a resident of Kewnipada slum in Andheri West, says she hates visiting the nearest health post run by Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) because it is very crowded. She has therefore got herself registered at a camp organised under the Mumbai Arogya Abhiyaan.
“There’s a perpetual queue at the BMC health post,” she said. Rane was among the 147 residents of the slum who registered themselves at the camp to be screened for various monsoon diseases on Wednesday. Mumbai Arogya Abhiyaan is the BMC’s flagship slum outreach program launched on April 7 this year.
“We have been organizing six camps everyday — two in the town area, two in the eastern suburbs and two in the western suburbs,” said Dr AA Bandiwadekar, deputy health officer at BMC. A total of 313 camps have been conducted so far. Another resident, Damyanti, 64, who was suspected to be suffering from malaria, said, “My relatives in Dahisar had told me about a similar camp that was conducted there. Since they were diagnosed and given free medicine, I also came here for a check up,” she said.
The camps are a joint effort by the Information Education and Communication, immunization, and vector control wings of the health department. Interns from various medical colleges along with doctors from BMC’s health offices run basic out patient departments (OPD’s) in these camps. “It is now compulsory for interns to be posted in the Arogya Abhiyaan camps, besides their regular postings in hospitals,” said Dr Pranite Tipre, assistant health officer of the IEC department. Besides screening all suspected fever cases for malaria, dengue and leptospirosis, the camps also provide routine immunization for children and pregnant women. The vector control team conducts inspections for breeding grounds of mosquitoes, and fogs sights that show any larvae growth. In Kewripada, 275 houses and 312 containers were inspected and one site was fogged after larvae of the dengue vector were found.
The health department is raving about the project’s success. “We are conducting camps from 9.30 am to 1 pm at present. But the turnout has been so impressive, that we want to try evening camps as well,” said Dr Bandiwadeker.
But the programme has not yet reached the heights it initially aimed to. At the time of its launch, additional municipal commissioner Manisha Mhaiskar had said these camps would help a minimum of 70-80 lakh slum dwellers. In the past three months of its operation, BMC estimates about 13 lakh people have been covered. In the K west ward where the camp was conducted on Wednesday, out of 64 slum pockets, only 14 have seen such camps. “The doctors have helped us a lot. But we don’t know when they will return,”said Kashi Balu, a resident of the Amboli naka area. Officials said the team would return “approximately in two months’ time.”
Dr Bandiwadekar still said the programme still aim to cover all slums, though in a longer time frame. “We started the exercise exclusively for the monsoon season. But we could extend it all the year round to benefit all slum dwellers,” he added.
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/slumdwellers-throng-arogya-abhiyaan-health-camps/638187/
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/slumdwellers-throng-arogya-abhiyaan-health-camps/638187/2