This Chandrapur based young doctor is unabatedly serving the remote, tribal population of rural Maharashtra through his NGO clinic in order to improve public health condition.
Dr.Kulbhushan More – Founder, EARTH Foundation & Clinic
Founded in October 2014, Dr Kulbhushan Haribhau More’s EARTH Foundation & Clinic have been selflessly working in spreading awareness and educating the tribal community regarding health and well-being of the society. His EARTH is an acronym for “Education Action Research in Tribal Health” which works dedicatedly on the health issues in the tribal community of Jiwati and Korpana block of rural Maharashtra. Several diseases like malaria, dengue, typhoid, diarrhoea, skin diseases, anaemia, malnutrition etc which are very common amongst these section of rural population below poverty line are often neglected due to huge medical bills. And this at times results in death due to lack of health services or superstitious beliefs about diseases.
Kulbhushan started working at a young age of 27 as a public health professional in the field of tribal & rural health in remote areas of Maharashtra. He was shocked to find that the communicable diseases are very much spread in this part of the world due to illiteracy, poverty, lack of health awareness & education in tribal community. Through his NGO he has been involved in social welfare. EARTH foundation has been arranging free Health check-up camps, free eye cataract operation camps, free child health camps, health awareness activities across 15 villages, menstrual hygiene awareness activities, reusable sanitary napkins manufacturing and distribution, mission Sanjivani Poshan Abhiyan for malnourished children, COVID19 awareness activities by Arogyadut in 15 villages of Jiwati block. During lockdown situation 3000 free masks were distributed among villagers for taking precautionary measures.
At an early age when he had a bright career ahead of him, Kulbhushan decided to dedicate his service to the poor and needy of rural Maharashtra. Through his awareness programs he has successfully inculcated the habit of check-ups among villagers. It wasn’t easy for him to achieve this feat and run his NGO successfully, he recalls that, “People were illiterate and believed in superstitions. They were habituated in visiting quacks thereby risking their health and life due to wrong treatments. Educating them wasn’t that easy and was an uphill task.”
Practicing since last 6 years, Kulbhushan draws inspiration from Dr Prakash Amte and Dr Abhay Bang, both working for betterment of tribal health in Gadchiroli of Maharashtra. Both these doctors’ selfless service to mankind encouraged Kulbhushan to take up the task of serving tribal underprivileged villagers of Chandrapur. Though he is doing his bit, he feels healthcare reform is needed in our country. Indian government should invest more in health sector to improve quality of health services and focus on ‘health for all’ mantra.
In spite of his challenging role, this prolific doctor succeeded in his mission due to his nature of socializing that helped him to remain close with the villagers’ community. It made him professionally more matured. For his dedicated service he has been vastly awarded and recognised. He has been interviewed by All India Radio – Nagpur to discuss about his work. All India Institute of Public & Physical Health Sciences, awarded him with ‘National Corona Warrior’ title. He has bagged some of the prestigious awards such as – Veedarbh Veer Social Doctor Award, Annabhau Sathe Samaajbhushan Award, Mahavir Internationals Best Doctor award.
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