Not All Heroes Wear Caps!

The shortage of doctors in rural areas is a major concern in India, because of which several people living in rural areas do not get the adequate health-related information as required. They have less access to good hospitals and suffer during emergencies due to longer response times. 

Most of them just keep on practicing the traditional ways they are aware of, which at times is helpful but unfortunately, it doesn’t always work and can further lead to worsening of the condition. This problem arises due to a lack of awareness concerning basic health care. 

Most rural people do not have any understanding of modern medicine and often tend to rely on the oldest member of their family which is not always the right decision to make.

Most situations do require the guidance of a knowledgeable person who can actually help them out in an organized manner. 

Every student in medicine has to complete 1 year of internship during their 5 years of study. Some students might get posted to the rural area and work towards the betterment of the people of that area. 

However, once the internship is over there is no point of contact for the rural people to reach out to, as the students were more concerned about completing their internship rather than focusing on helping the people. Every year nearly 1.5 lakh students pass out as MBBS graduates [1], from 542 medical colleges across India [2]. Imagine what impact this vast number of students can create on society by implementing a few changes in their lives. 

If along with their mandatory internships, follow-ups, and maintaining contact with a few rural people is made mandatory as well, it would be a great step towards societal development. It doesn’t have to be a drastic change; a small implementation could also be highly impactful. For example, each student could mentor at least 5 people under them and be available to them whenever in need be it through phone calls/online or through occasional visits. It would greatly overcome the problem of the lack of health care professionals in rural areas due to geographical factors, as most of the rural places are in isolated areas. 

This way at least 5 people in rural areas will be able to gain basic knowledge about hygiene, menstrual hygiene, basic health issues, food habits, etc under one student mentor who is highly capable of doing so. In case the person is doubtful about the practices they have been doing, they can always contact their mentors and receive guidance and information about it and the mentors can direct them to the right path and clear their doubts. 

Another major cause of concern is how most young children in rural areas take in large intoxicants unknowingly and make it their lifestyle without realizing the hazards that it could cause their bodies in the long run. Such realization and information could be provided to them through this mentorship program. 

It is found that 3.6 million people die globally because they do not have proper access to health care [3]. The life expectancy rates in urban areas are higher than the rural areas as there is a huge gap in access to health education and quality health care.

This initiative not only has its own benefits but also has easy implementation. One organized way has to be established on conducting this initiative, which is to set a point of contact between the rural people and their respective mentors. This can be done in a single visit by the students at the rural place by registering them to a platform which will be the mode of contact and briefing them about how can they use this platform to get in touch with their mentors at any point in time and receive proper guidance, and then the rest of the mentoring can take place over the platform. 

Through such well-structured and uniform patterns of established reporting and platform of a mode of contact the initiative can be recorded formally while simultaneously drafting the positive results and impact created, it becomes systematic and easier for the institution as well.

This way the health care can be provided at almost every rural area in India overcoming the geographical and economic factors as small problems can be solved by the students and if any kind of serious condition comes up the mentors can try to provide some help from their side by contacting their seniors and informing the nearest government hospital who in turn can send help. This process can revolutionize the health care sector of India, overcoming various challenges and leading to the development of the country.