CSR: Medical Beacon of Rural India – Telemedicine Facility Provided by Bharat Forge

PUNE (India CSR): In a geographically diverse country like India with a population of 140 crores, providing medical facilities to every citizen is a challenge. Access to medical facilities is relatively easy in cities, but in rural India, which constitutes 66% of the population, it is still very difficult to bring primary medical facilities at the grassroot level.

In many remote villages in Maharashtra, where residents have to struggle to get even basic facilities, getting health facilities is a faraway dream! Men and women in most of these villages work as daily wage labourers. These people who do not get enough food in daily meals, are not able to take care of their own health. The struggle for survival is so crucial that everything else has to take backseat to it. In such a case, if employment is lost due to minor illnesses, the entire household remains hungry.

In such cases, there is a tendency to hide the illness or ignore the pain. And if by doing so the disease worsens, the family will have to lose its guardian, because there is no permanent doctor in the village and none of them have enough money to go to the taluka place. Even if the children of the family fall ill, they have to go to work to get employment.

Government level efforts

The Government is trying to bring the common people under the ambit of public health facilities by establishing as many as 1, 50,000 health welfare centres across the country. The government strives to adopt a preventive and health-promoting approach to health in order to ensure good health for people of all ages in rural area. The facility includes in-patient care, neonatal and maternal health care.

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However, these efforts of the government proved to be insufficient during covid pandemic. In 2019-20, the Covid-19 pandemic was sweeping the world, when the health facilities in developed countries were inadequate, just imagine what would have happened to India with a huge population but without adequate network of medical facilities? But during this period, the Government gave official recognition to the telemedicine sector and paved the way for bringing medical facilities to the grassroots level.

Rural Maharashtra and Bharat Forge

Babasaheb Kalyani, Chairman and Managing Director of Bharat Forge, having his original family background from a village, knows about various problems in rural areas and always takes initiative to solve them. Bharat Forge has decided to pay special attention to amenities in selected 100 villages under its CSR project to improve the standard of living in rural areas of Maharashtra. Villagers and Bharat Forge are working together to make these villages self-sufficient in terms of water, education, infrastructure, health and employment, and these efforts are transforming the village.

What is telemedicine facility?

Telemedicine facility is an online service to provide good quality primary health care facilities which reduces the cost of healthcare delivery anywhere in the country without incurring any additional financial burden to the common man! Telemedicine facilities can provide primary health care and medical guidance to the last person in rural areas through video calls.

Committed to provide telemedicine facilities

After the recognition of the telemedicine facility sector in the year 2021, Bharat Forge under the able guidance of Babasaheb Kalyani and in collaboration with Doorstep Health Services, launched telemedicine facility in Pune and Satara districts of Maharashtra. By setting up total 8 telemedicine service centres in Thakare wadi, Chikhali, Fadalewadi in Ambegaon taluka of Pune district and Dhamner, Kanherkhed, Rui, Nagzari and Jaipur in Koregaon taluka of Satara district, Bharat Forge laid a solid foundation for telemedicine facilities in Maharashtra. The people of all these villages are deprived of medical facilities. People here have to work the entire day to get their daily meals. In such a situation, it was a big challenge to make them aware of taking care of their health.

Thus, the habit was inculcated

In the above villages, it was necessary to make the villagers accustomed to receiving medical guidance through video call and to create faith in their minds towards this facility. For this, Bharat Forge appointed two experienced local nurses at each of the telemedicine centre. As villagers became familiar with them, the gap between modern telemedicine facilities and conventional medical facilities was filled and villagers got connected to these centres. Bharat Forge was able to instil confidence in the villagers as there was facility to get medicines along with treatment. Under the outreach program the staff reaches the house of the patients who are unable to come to telemedicine centre. 

Due to this, now the villagers do not have to walk long ways to get first aid. Bharat Forge has benefited 38,797 villagers so far with the telemedicine facility being successfully implemented in a total of 8 villages.

Benefits of Bharat Forge’s telemedicine facility

* Direct benefit of healthcare facilities through Outreach program in remote and extremely remote areas.

* Increase in health awareness of villagers. In particular, the villagers learned the importance of a healthy diet and adequate exercise.

* Immediate treatment and medication is possible for cold, cough, fever, minor diseases and minor injuries.

* Immediate treatment reduces the risk of losing livelihood. Very much beneficial for financial stability of many families who are living from hand to mouth. 

* Serious diseases like heart disease, diabetes etc. were diagnosed in time and the patient could be immediately admitted to the nearest hospital for treatment.

Ms. Asha Khandu Pardhi, Sarpanch, Thakarwadi, Pune shared, “The telemedicine health facility provided by Bharat Forge has benefited our tribal community a lot. This facility is very important for the daily wage earners. Our tribal people located in Bhimashankar valley consider their livelihood very important. However, they suffer from many illnesses, fatigue, epidemics etc which result in health as well as financial loss. Therefore, telemedicine facility is very important for them. This facility has created awareness among the people and has started saving them from big and small diseases. We are grateful to Bharat Forge!”

Lifeline facility of rural Maharashtra

This telemedicine service, which provides immediate medical guidance even in the most remote areas of rural Maharashtra, is proving to be a lifesaver for the villagers. Medical advice and guidance for minor and serious ailments as well as emergencies can be obtained from this facility. Apart from this, the centres also organize programs such as online health guidance sessions, physiotherapy exercises for patients, and haemoglobin and blood sugar testing.

The company also imparts CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) training to the staff and villagers at the telemedicine centres to enable them to handle emergency situations.

Villagers are seen benefitting from the online guidance sessions at telemedicine centres. The expert doctors guide the villagers about the information, care and prevention of fractures along with important diseases like breast cancer, rheumatism, anaemia etc. Apart from this, Bharat Forge’s CSR steam conducts village-to-village visits to encourage villagers to avail telemedicine facilities.

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A ray of hope for a healthy life in rural India

As many as 38,797 villagers have benefited from the telemedicine facilities started by Bharat Forge for the creation of a healthy India and now they have a pleasant feeling that they have a right to quality health facilities. “Bharat Forge believes that along with the government, it is our job to create a reassuring image that India is committed to providing quality healthcare to Indians on its journey to becoming the global superpower”, the company said. In this regard, Bharat Forge has shown a ray of hope to rural areas by providing telemedicine facilities. Bharat Forge will continue to contribute towards improving the health landscape of rural India.

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