For migrant workers settled far away from the comfort of their homes, a ‘buddy’ dropping in every now and then enquiring about their well-being can be so comforting.
Bandhu, meaning buddy in Bengali, a mobile health clinic deployed on a pilot basis at migrant workers’ camps since last Saturday has that soothing effect for a largely marginalised community.
The project has been implemented under Athithi Devo Bhava, the National Health Mission (NHM) campaign to coordinate migrant welfare projects, in association with the Centre for Migration and Inclusive Development (CMID). While Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited sponsored the purchase and customisation of vehicle, ESAF Small Finance Bank is bearing the expenses of its operations.
ADVERTISEMENT
Quality healthcare
“This is arguably the first-of-its-kind initiative for migrant community anywhere in the country. It is aimed at ensuring migrant workers access to quality healthcare surmounting the barriers of language, location and timing, which often denied them conventional healthcare services,” said Benoy Peter, executive director, CMID.
The deployment of ‘Bandhu’ was fast-tracked in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak though the customisation of the vehicle was yet to be complete.
ADVERTISEMENT
“The mobile clinic now focusses on awareness creation on COVID-19 and active screening of migrants. Since its deployment, it has covered around 20 migrant camps screening around 1,400 migrant workers,” said Akhil Xavier Manuel, nodal officer for Athithi Devo Bhava.
Migrants found to be in need of medicines and further follow-up will be taken care of by the Primary Health Centres (PHCs) concerned. “Though the focus is on COVID-19, workers do come up with other ailments like chronic back pain arising out of their harsh working conditions and for which they could not afford medicines or treatment till now.”
The mobile clinic has one doctor, two junior health inspectors, and a coordinator, nurse and a driver each. The nurse is multilingual and helps overcome the language barrier. It can also rope in 11 migrant link workers, if needed, trained by NHM.