Transforming Rural Health: Ponty Chadha Foundation

Healthcare is a fundamental right but many in India, especially rural India, do not get to enjoy it. Endogenous and exogenous factors continue to thwart thousands in rural areas from accessing fundamental healthcare.

The village of Shekhpur Khicra is a classic allegory of lack of healthcare facilities and rising cases that seek medical attention. After philanthropic organization Ponty Chadha Foundation overviewed the situation, it discovered medical attention was long overdue and set up a health camp on November 26^th 2014.  

The premises of the village school were drawn upon for hosting the event. Things kicked off early at 10 AM when the attendees started pouring in. Teams of doctors from the Indo German Hospital had joined in and together with volunteers from the Foundation they ensured things ensued in a businesslike manner.

A communications center was also set up where registrations took place. Every attendee had to register before they could see the doctor and an OPD card for the same was issued. Medicines and aid were thereafter given out from a separate counter within the premises.

On interacting with the gathering, volunteers from the Ponty Chadha Foundation realized the village had been facing gynecological and gastro issues but due to lack of options and awareness, they had not been able to seek proper treatment.  A short counselling session on the need of timely treatment and addressing many long-standing queries was also held.

 It also came out during the exchange that the village is made up by a large population of children and infants who were particularly indisposed to the lowly hygiene culture that prevails in the area. The volunteers then went on to discuss and spread awareness on the importance of hygiene and how the villagers could raise the bar on personal hygiene.

Some of the patients were found exhibiting signs of respiratory and joint issues and a few had to be referred to Indo German Hospital where they will be offered advanced diagnostics and treatment.

Ponty Chadha Foundation is the philanthropic wing of Wave Group established in memory of late Mr. Gurdeep Chadha. Its areas of influence include childcare, special education, and food provisioning.

PCF organizes health camp in Village Dinanathpur

Health is a privilege denied to many. While in theory, there shouldn’t be any demographic or racial divide in access to basic amenities and social services to the citizens of a nation, things play out very differently in India.

The rural-urban divide in the country continues to pit a huge disparity between the general health and wellbeing of the populace. While on one hand, modern amenities and medical facilities are increasingly improved for city dwellers, access to even basic healthcare and diagnostics is difficult for the rural public. And, as most of India –or most of its poor—live in the villages, dearth of qualified medical functionaries and basic healthcare infrastructure continues to be the biggest challenge that thwarts growth of the nation.

Identifying this national concern, the Ponty Chadha Foundation has set about making a change at the grassroots level. In a series of healthcare initiatives taken up by them to increase the outreach of medical facilities to the underserved, a health camp was organized at Village Dinanathpur in collaboration with the Indo German Hospital, on November 19^th. Starting off at 1000 hrs. morning, the camp saw a huge crowd turn up with as many as 121 patients from 300 families undergo examination until 1pm.

The Foundation had its experienced volunteers working together to avoid any pandemonium. The huge playground of the village government school was let out to provide ample room for the patients to be comfortably seated while they awaited their turn. Separate registration, check-up and medicine distribution counters were setup to further systemize the operation. A patient would have to first obtain a token number and get their name and age registered on the OPD card; then, they would wait for getting examined, following which medicaments from the dedicated counter could be collected.  

The doctors at the camp did a thorough check-up after which a few cases were referred to the Indo German hospital for further diagnostics and treatment. They also spread awareness about safe sanitation practices and its importance in general well-being.

The doctors said that most complaints pertained to respiratory problems and joint pain which could have been well-addressed with timely treatment. This message was passed on to the villagers and was evidently was well received.

Ponty Chadha Foundation is the philanthropic arm of the Wave Group and works towards social welfare through special childcare and food supply.

A Healthcare Call by Ponty Chadha Foundation

At a time when health services are skewed towards urban dwellers that have access to 66% of available hospital beds in the country, parts of rural India cope up on their own. With inadequate healthcare facilities and infrastructure in rural parts, studies reveal that over three-fifth of village population travels over 5km on average just to find a healthcare utility.

Insufficiency in public healthcare leads such people to set hope towards private healthcare but it results in affordability issues. Aware of this anomaly, Ponty Chadha Foundation (PCF) organizes camps in remote regions across the country to help create self-awareness and broader national perspective.

The latest camp for this endeavour took place on 29th October in Raghunathpur and addressed general health problems faced by the villagers. The event was organized in collaboration with Indo German Hospital and administered free advice, aid, and guidance on safe healthcare-related practices.

To hold a large number of attendees, the premises of a local school were used. Proceedings began at 10 in the morning and continued till 1 pm.  While the doctors and paramedics conducted health checks, the volunteers of Ponty Chadha Foundation controlled crowd and logistics management.

Villagers were guided through a check point where they were provided tokens after they had filled out OPD cards. The event was well-executed right through as the teams of doctors, paramedics, and the Foundation displayed excellent coordination.

The ensemble of over a hundred and twenty two was treated for common healthcare problems that had before been untreated. When it came out that quite a few of them exhibited signs of body pain and Asthma, the most vulnerable were referred to Indo German Hospital for further treatment.

The camp was part of the drive Ponty Chadha Foundation undertakes in different regions across India to provide aid and bring to the forefront issues of local and national significance.

Website: http://thepontychadhafoundation.com/

Ponty Chadha Foundation Organizes Healthcare Camp in Village Kachera

The Ponty Chadha Foundation (PCF) organized a free healthcare camp in the village of Kachera on November 12th 2014 which was held from 10 am to 1 pm at the premises of a village temple and attracted huge gathering. .

The camp lasted nearly three hours with suitable arrangements for seating for the crowd which had begun building up early.  A pre-examination process was put in place where tokens were assigned to patients after getting their details on an OPD card. A separate counter for collecting medicines was also set up.

During the examination, doctors found vulnerability against anemia and gynecological issues was rather high among the villagers, and some of them were referred for further examination and treatment to the Indo German Hospital.

As one of the doctors from the camp observed, “There is a section of people who suffer from serious health issues but never go to a doctor because of lack of proper facilities. If they get early diagnosis, they can prevent a life-threatening situation.”

The day started building up early and when the examination was complete by 1 PM, 143 members from 600 families had enlisted free healthcare.

The camp was held in collaboration with Indo-German Hospital with the objective of raising awareness on general healthcare. Upon interacting with some attendees who had attended the camp, PCF volunteers found the villagers with greater understanding of issues they previously had little knowledge of.

Talking about the initiative Mr. Manjir Ghosh, Head CSR, Wave Group & CEO Ponty Chadha Foundation said, "It was the vision of our late Chairman Mr. Ponty Chadha to provide proper diagnostic facilities to the poor and needy people. He believed that lack of such facilities only lead to their poor heath and so proper diagnosis is crucial. Our attempts are wholeheartedly and sincerely directed towards addressing these grassroots problems wherein people do not get medical assistance due to financial constraints.”

Ponty Chadha Foundation works towards enabling equitable healthcare across all sections and demography. Its initiatives span special child education and healthcare and continue to spread awareness on these issues among the rural populace.

Ponty Chadha Foundation’s Village Naiphal Health Camp

As much as India has progressed on spreading basic healthcare far and wide, villages still seem a forbidden lot.  Some of them, like village Naiphal in Ghaziabad, still don’t have facilities of their own and rely largely on facilities a fair distance off.

Rather ironically, the village that has lately been notified as an urban body has no medicare facility of its own but hinges on the single government setup in Dasna Tehsil for its own health. This has made medicare hard to come by for villagers, many of whom face signs of respiratory, joint pain, and vision disorders.

When Ponty Chadha Foundation zeroed in on this particular village, it found many of the villagers warranted a medical prognosis of the signs they had developed. The Foundation took cognizance of this and on the morning of September 6^th 2014, a large-scale health camp was organised at the village temple premises.

Doctors and teams of paramedics from Dr. Ram Saran Garg Indo German Hospital voluntarily stepped in as part of the drive to administer free aid and advise the villagers on general healthcare. The event picked up steam quite early as eager villagers made a beeline for the camp, and by 0700 hours, a sizable gathering had queued up for making mandatory registrations. 

Nearly 700 families attended the event which culminated around 1300 hours after every attendee had got medical aid and attention from the teams of doctors and assistants. The temple premises aided coordination and order with ample seating arrangements made in advance by the PCF teams.

The objective of the camp to provide aid and educate the villagers on early diagnosis was successfully achieved as a number of the attendees with signs of likely respiratory, vision, and joint-related disorders chose to pursue further treatment at the Indo German hospital. PCF and the hospital also pledged aid and support to these villagers pursuing further line of treatment.

The Ponty Chadha Foundation actively takes up social welfare.  Health camps in remote areas are one of the ways the Foundation brings up rural health to the forefront. The current drive focuses on villages in North India and Delhi NCR which lack even basic healthcare access. The Foundation’s outreach extends to charities and organisations actively involved in social upliftment, one noted among those being the Mata Bhagwanti Chadha Niketan (MBCN). 

Ponty Chadha Foundation’s Naiphal health Camp

The adage ‘health is wealth’ could never have been any truer than now.  While everybody these days scurries through tight schedules, it is health that gets pushed to the backburner. Though that’s generally true of urban populace, Ponty Chadha Foundation has learnt that villages have their own share of larger, and often unrecognized, problems. 

One such village is Naiphal in Ghaziabad.  The villagers here have been faced by lack of medical aid for the longest time, which was taken cognizance of by the Foundation, and, a health camp organised on 6th September, 2014.

The day set off early as villagers started queuing up at 0700 hours by the village temple which was used for the event. By 1000 hours, doctors and paramedics from the Dr. Ram Saran Garg Indo German Hospital got the camp officially underway, and by the stroke of noon, over 100 families had got a general health check done.

The momentum was maintained right through untilevery attendee had had themselves medically examined. As planned, by 1300 hours the whole village was comprehensively covered. 

As the paramedics and teams of doctors went about their business, a group of volunteers from the Ponty Chadha Foundation tended to the assemblage in the temple hall where due arrangements to accommodate the gathering had been made. 

Other volunteers divvied up in teams to ensure the villagers made the most of this opportunity and the event went by well-ordered.  Every villager was guided through a check point where they displayed their registration details before seeing the medical team. 

The dwellers of village Naiphal, it came out during the camp, were particularly prone to respiratory, joint, and vision issues, with quite a few of them, needing further treatment. Such cases were, after being examined and administered available aid, asked to show up at the Indo German Hospitalwhere they would get treated with support and aid from the Foundation

It is rather surprising that the village does not have any Anganwadi centre to aid its population. Ponty Chadha Foundation learnt through a former Anganwadi worker that the village was deemed an urban body which has putit directly under the purview of Dasna Tehsil’s government facility. Ever since, the gap between facilities and aid has only widened,and the village has not got due attention from the concerned authorities.

Ponty Chadha Foundation's Kazipura's Health Camp

The morning of 25th June was a bright one for the people of Kazipura, for the residents, in unison, assembled at Ponty Chadha Foundation’s free health campaign set up for treating health issues inherent in the region.

The village of Kazipura has a lot of people who suffer from joint pain and cataract. The most perturbing of all issues is that a greater part of the village finds professional healthcare hard to get to, and hence it’s kind of normal for matters of health to be shirked away as a way of life.

Realizing the problem, the Ponty Chadha Foundation approached with the solution of a health camp that attracted people from all walks, specially mothers and children. Dr. Ram Saran Garg hospital, the best Indo-German hospital around, and its team of doctors and paramedics collaborated in raising health awareness and treating the villagers for various issues.

The camp started at 10 in the morning and by 1 pm, a sizable population from the village of 250 families had got checked up for cataract and joint pain in particular, and undergone general healthcare checks.

The residents were beforehand informed to get themselves registered.  The team of doctors and the medical team, in tandem, ensured requisite medicaments were provided and those in need of extended medical supervision are taken under the wing.

The Ponty Chadha foundation has been doing its bit to scale up social welfare across the country. It focuses strongly on the idea of social parity through endeavours in health, education, and special care.

The Foundation also strongly advocates malnourishment eradication and several of its efforts, especially in rural India, are directed towards that. It has garnered the support of Indian FoodBanking Network and is steadily extending outreach through countrywide programs from time to time.