As the dead bodies were brought into Bahanaga High School, Balasore district, which served as a transit point, after one of India’s most devastating train accidents, there was one reassuring voice among the anguished cries of relatives — Mamata Pradhan. Ayurvedic practitioner Pradhan (59) was soothing frayed tempers, enraged outbursts and the inconsolable cries of grieving women, who had lost their loved ones in the catastrophe that claimed the lives of 275 people.
On June 4, she was also enabling the administration to relocate the dead bodies to the North Orissa Chamber of Commerce & Industry (NOCCI) campus in Balasore, where the remains would be handed over to their families. She had hurried to the scene of the tragedy to offer assistance, unbound by any government mandate. Since 1999, Ms. Pradhan has dedicated herself to humanitarian endeavours, offering primary treatment to victims and counselling relatives wherever major disasters have struck in India and abroad.
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“As most of the injured were shifted to the hospital soon after the accident, my services as a doctor were not required. There were enough State government doctors and railway doctors deployed to manage the crisis. I fit into the situation as a coordinator to bring government officials and civil society groups together to minimise the crisis,” says Ms. Pradhan.
The treating doctors were overwhelmed by the magnitude of the crisis and worked round the clock to attend to patients. Ms. Pradhan interacted with the women and helped arrange sanitary napkins, undergarments and spare clothes.
““I have worked in almost all major disasters across various States in India. From the cloud burst in Ladakh in 2010 to Kerala’s 2018 flood, from the tsunami in 2004 to Odisha’s 2019 Fani cyclone. Sometimes a disaster is so big that government machinery is not able to cope. Then my service as a doctor comes handy.” ”Mamata Pradhan
“A woman from Murshidabad of West Bengal had lost her son in the train accident. She was lonely and hopeless. It was my basic duty to lower her anxiety levels. The woman was guided to AIIMS, Bhubaneswar, to find her son’s body,” she said.
After graduating from the Government Ayurvedic College, Balangir, in 1993, her approach towards her career changed when she went to provide medical assistance to people with malaria in Koraput district. She started her career in a non-government organisation and worked extensively in coastal Odisha after the super cyclone in 1999. Over the years, she has involved herself in humanitarian works in areas hit by natural disasters, including Tanzania, Nepal, and Sri Lanka.
“I have worked in almost all major disasters across various States in India. From the cloud burst in Ladakh in 2010 to Kerala’s 2018 flood, from the tsunami in 2004 to Odisha’s 2019 Fani cyclone. Sometimes a disaster is so big that government machinery is not able to cope. Then my service as a doctor comes handy,” she said.
The Bhubaneswar-based doctor is often hired by non-government organisations to travel to disaster sites. “Sometimes I arrange my own resources,” she said.
