India's Rural Doctors

Tom Pietrasik

Set Ref:210

Date:23/04/2010

Continually exposed to illnesses associated with malnutrition and poverty including tuberculosis and rheumatic heart disease, Indias rural doctors from the public-health initiative JSS, are tireless advocates for universal healthcare and the need to introduce measures to reduce society's inequities. They focus resources upon the three-quarters of India's population who live on less than 50 US cents a day.

The JSS is Jan Swasthya Sahyog or People's Health Support Group, a public-health initiative established in 1996 by committed doctors, all of whom trained at elite medical schools in India. Many of their peers secured high profile, high earning posts in premier hospitals in India, the US and the UK, JSS doctors have focussed their medical expertise on providing a service for poor and marginalised rural communities in Bilaspur district in the east Indian state of Chhattisgarh. JSS relies on grants and private donations, and doctors at JSS pay themselves only US$ 500 a month.