After scripting a success story in empowering rural woman in the hill district of Wayanad, the Kudumbashree District Mission has set up a telemedicine unit at Manimunda, a tribal settlement in the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary.
Minister for Welfare of Scheduled Tribes and Backward Classes K. Radhakrishnan will inaugurate the project on Thursday.
The project to be implemented in association with the family health centre (FHC) at Noolpuzha and the Centre for Social Computing, a software company in the district, aims to ensure primary healthcare to residents in the Manimunda settlement.
The settlement is nearly four km from the nearest town Naikattty and nearly six km from the primary health centre.
“Jithendranath, a freelance anesthesiologist at Sulthan Bathery, had set up a telemedicine unit for the tribal people of the Kurichayd tribal hamlet under the sanctuary a few years ago and it was a huge success. The success inspired us to launch the project for the marginalised section of society with the support of Dr. Jithendranath,” says P. Sajitha, district coordinator, Kudumbashree Mission.
The mission has trained as many as six members of the Kudumbashree unit at Manimunda to cater to the needs of the 156 members of the 46 tribal families, including 20 Kattunayakkan and 26 Kuruma tribal families, of the settlement, says Ms. Sajitha.
The mission has set up a centre with facilities such as Wi-Fi tower, computer, web camera with monitor, and a printer at the hamlet and linked it with the Noolpuzha FHC to ensure healthcare for the residents round the clock.
Any resident can approach the centre for treatment of minor illness, especially during nighttime, and the trained members will connect the doctor and the patient. The mission has spent ₹2 lakh on the project.
The mission has kept different types of medicines for minor illness and the members will provide medicines as per the directive of the physician in the hospital, says V.P. Dahar Mohammed, medical officer of the PHC.
The centre can also be used for organising awareness programmes among the tribespeople on zoonotic diseases such as Kysanur forest disease or monkey fever, says Dr. Dahar.
“We are planning to extend the project to six adjacent tribal hamlets in the near future,” says Dr. Dahar.
