In Bastar’s Maoist land, healthcare, education and social indicators are often low, but the Bijapur hospital is an anomaly, a symbol. There is a new blood bank, new operation theatres, and a 50-bed maternal and child healthcare section, strung up with the latest technology. In this report by Dipankar Ghose in The Indian Express read about this district hospital and how it is helping the people....
In his final year as a student of gynaecology at Aligarh Muslim University, Dr Arun Choudhary first heard of the need for doctors in a place called Bijapur. Like many others, he first mistook it for the district in Karnataka. When his head of department, Dr Seema Hakim, told him that it was a district in Chhattisgarh’s Naxal heartland, Choudhary admits there was doubt. But he was young and free, and told his professor that he would see the place for himself. And in July 2015, with his wife Pratibha, Choudhary set off on a 1,400-km drive.
Choudhary then went to meet District Collector Ayyaz Tamboli, who had introduced a differential incentive system to Bijapur, offering doctors high salaries for time spent working here
