The organisation has started different kinds of awareness campaign against Aids and drugs and an emergency service for students.
He grew up in secure comfort and an expansive home in North Kolkata but that didn’t stop D Ashis to peep into the other side of life-- to realise the appalling state of human health.
After 32 years of continuous struggle, he has been successful in creating a network which caters, only through throwaway medicines and donations from individuals, to more than one lakh people and help them survive.
“My neighbourhood had some of the city’s most fetid shantytowns and when you live next door to slums, you do a reality check very early in your life. I did so, and was horrified at what I discovered,” Ashis told Deccan Herald.
“When some people just threw medicines and other life support systems only because they don’t need them, there were many more who couldn’t afford to buy medicines and dropped dead like flies,” Ashis said.
“This apparent disparity really worried me. Human misery and callousness have always coexisted famously in our cities,” he lamented. Encountered with the sheer callousness of the citizenry towards the plight of the slum-dwellers, Ashis felt that if someone could only take out the time and collect the unused and left over medicines that could help many people to get back their lives.
Driven by the passion to do something for the people living in the ghettos, in the year 1980, Ashis and a dozen of his friends-- all in their teens-- began a door-to-door collection drive, picking up unused medicines from neighbours and distributing them among those who couldn’t afford any. Ashis gave his venture a blunt moniker: Medical Bank.
In this nightmarish world where the public health system has withered away and derelict government hospitals are run by rapacious mafia-like party-sponsored unions, Ashis’ s organisation, operating from a small office in Hatkhola in North Kolkata, is an oasis of care and attention for the poor who flock here from far-flung suburbs.
Initiated with 100 homes, 10 doctors and 50 donors on its rolls--each of whom bears the cost of treatment for one patient-- this non-governmental organisation, now with 500 strong working force, including doctors, paramedical staff and volunteers, not only picks medicines from more than 500 doctors and over 2,000 donors but also caters to nearly one lakh people in Kolkata, its suburbs and in most of the districts of Bengal.
“Initially we started with only medicine department but now we have branched into 25 other departments, including ambulance service, department mainly for thalassemia and haemophilia patients, medical service for the sex workers,
senior citizens and mother and child,” Ashis said.
“We also run a free outdoor service where 25 doctors treat about 100 patients every day and a not-fully-equipped pathology laboratory out of rented rooms in the neighbourhood. We have also managed to start monthly health camps for street
children and children of prostitutes in the area,” he said.
“Not only that we have kicked off different kinds of awareness like campaign against Aids and drugs but also started an emergency service for the students who are giving Madhyamik examination,” he added. Another unique idea of Ashis is the pacemaker bank and the spectacle bank. Eight years ago, they began collecting old pacemakers from homes, hospitals and crematoria to give poor heart patients a new lease of life.
“In many cases it has been found that these pacemakers can still be used for a few more years. They are tested, recharged and hospitals persuaded to
implant them for free,” he said.
“Collecting pacemakers was tough job but we searched for patients and families and collected these invaluable medical support system. Then we persuaded the doctors mainly in the government hospitals to implant them free,” he said.
“While a new pacemaker costs anything between Rs 45,000 and Rs 1.2 lakh, plus another Rs 30,000 for implanting charges, we have been successful in collecting and implanting over 300 pacemakers absolutely free. There are another 200 patients in the queue,” Ashis said.
In a sterling effort at mobilising the community, the organisation has signed up more than 1,000 locals, each of whom buys a pair of new spectacles for the bank, which then distributes it to the poor. The bank also organises blood donation camps, awareness programme in the city and in the districts.
In 2011 alone, the bank managed to collect 50,000 units of blood from its different camps all over the state.
“Neither do we get any Central aid nor are we funded by the state government. This huge organisation is solely run by individual donations-- in cash or in kind. On an average apart from other donations we receive Rs 10 lakhs to Rs 12 lakh per annum and this we spend on expanding our organisation,” Ashis added.
When asked whether he has received support from the people, this 55- year-old man who has sacrificed his personal life for the sake of the society, said: “Initially we faced a lot of problems but now people come spontaneously and donate and we are getting very positive responses”.