Rural Health and We

Each person born on earth is the child of the God, who has carved them on the basis of diversity. For instance, everyone in this sphere is a creation of the supreme one. Under such circumstances, depriving some of the mainstream because they don’t look like other people needs to be reconsidered. In spite of this, there are millions of people in our society who are excluded from the community due to their seeming imperfections. But who decides on what basis people are categorised into perfection and imperfection? It is also a necessity to revisit this dispute.

This imperfection is colloquially regarded as handicapped, incapacitated, divyang and disability. As soon as this word surfaces, there is a sense of regret and pity in the mind of others. It hints towards the dependence of the Divyang person which considers the differently abled as a curse. However, not all people in society reckon it in this manner. The real example of this is Dr Amal Saikia Ji, who moved towards the assistance of that excluded group of society which has always perceived as pitiable.

In 2002, Dr Amal Saikia Ji established an NGO called “Rural Health and We”. Its purpose has been to provide free medical services to Divyang people of the society. With this initiative, Dr Amal Saikia Ji would visit numerous villages to facilitate awareness and health-related assistance to Divyang citizens. This voluntary organization is situated in the Swayam Sevi Sangathan of the Biswanath Chariali village in Assam.

There are some services that Dr Saikia Ji has been providing for consecutive years. Apart from this he also inaugurated a hospital named Rangoni in 2014 for disabled children and youth of Assam. It began in a rented house with a capacity of 15 to 20 patients. In this hospital, arrangements were made for the treatment of those who mainly suffer from some kind of mental illness. This disease of brain paralysis is also identified as cerebral palsy and autism. The hospital is equipped with a 24 -hour health workers system. The main objective of establishing this hospital is to nurture mentally weak people to the level self-sufficiency. Thus, allowing them to perform their everyday tasks on their own work. For this, these patients are regularly assisted with yoga meditation, special exercises and speech therapy.

According to Dr. Saikia Ji, this path of service was not so easy for him. He visited door-to-door to enlighten the parents and families of disabled children. Reassuring them of a possible recovery through medicine has been a tiresome and demanding undertaking. Yet even at present Dr Amal Saikia Ji has determined his goal to provide services to disabled children. With the intent that consequently this group can also get a dignified place in mainstream society. For the selfless service of Dr Amal Saikia Ji, Sant Eshwer Foundation has proudly honoured “Rural Health and We” with the Sant Eshwer Award for the year 2021.