National: In a geographically diverse country like India with a population of 140 crores, providing medical facilities to every citizen is challenging. Access to medical facilities is relatively easy in cities, but in rural India, which constitutes 66 per cent of the population, it is still extremely difficult to bring primary medical facilities at the grassroot level.
In many remote villages in Maharashtra, where residents 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. The ones who do not have enough to eat daily cannot take care of their health. The struggle for survival is so crucial that everything else takes a 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. If by doing so the disease worsens, the family will have to lose its guardian as there is no permanent doctor in the village, and none of them have enough money to go to the taluka. Even if the children in the family fall ill, they need to go to work to earn a livelihood.
Government-level Efforts
The government has launched various welfare schemes to protect the health of such extremely poor and helpless people who have no access to any facilities. 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 to ensure good health for people of all ages. The above health welfare centres provide comprehensive health facilities to the people of rural and remote areas. These include in-patient care, neonatal and maternal health care. However, these efforts of the government proved to be insufficient during the pandemic. In 2019-20, the pandemic was sweeping the world, and the health facilities in developed countries were inadequate, just imagine what would have happened to India with a huge population but without an 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 a Telemedicine Facility?
A telemedicine facility is an ideal solution to provide good quality primary healthcare facilities, improve the quality of facilities, and reduce the cost of healthcare delivery anywhere in the country without incurring any additional financial burden to the common man. Telemedicine facilities can provide primary healthcare and medical guidance to the last person in rural areas through video calls.
Committed to Providing Telemedicine Facilities
After the recognition of the telemedicine facility sector in 2021, Bharat Forge under the able guidance of Babasaheb Kalyani, and in collaboration with Doorstep Health Services, launched telemedicine facilities in Pune and Satara districts of Maharashtra with the help of satellite facilities. By setting up eight telemedicine service centres in Thakarewadi, 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 very poor and are deprived of medical facilities. People here work the entire day to secure their daily meals. In such a situation, it was a significant challenge to make them aware of the importance 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 calls and to create faith in their minds towards this facility. For this, Bharat Forge appointed two experienced local nurses at each of the telemedicine centres. 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 a facility to get medicines along with treatment. Due to these centres, 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 eight villages.
Benefits of Bharat Forge’s Telemedicine Facility
* * Direct benefit of healthcare facilities through outreach programmes 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 a livelihood. Very beneficial for the 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.
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 poor class of 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 facilities are 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 organise programmes such as remote health guidance sessions, physiotherapy exercises for patients, and haemoglobin and blood sugar screening. The company also imparts Artificial Respiration (CPR) training to the staff and villagers at the telemedicine centres to enable them to handle emergencies.
Villagers are seen benefitting from 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 staff conducts village-to-village visits to encourage villagers to avail telemedicine facilities.
A Ray of Hope for a Healthy Life in Rural India
16,866 villagers have benefited from Bharat Forge’s telemedicine facilities, creating a sense of entitlement to quality health facilities. Bharat Forge believes that along with the government, it is their job to create a reassuring image that India is committed to providing quality healthcare to Indians on its journey to becoming a global superpower. In this regard, it 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.
