Panchkula, August 2
There is some more good news for the 200-odd child beggars who are now students of Jeevan Mukt Nishulk Vidyalaya here. After the NGO, Jeevan Mukt Nishulk Vidyalaya, picked up the child beggars for providing them education, a team of city-based doctors and pharmacists have now come forward to keep a check on the health of these children.
Prodded by The Tribune report on how the child beggars from outside various temples of Panchkula were being weaned away from begging, and admitted to schools run by the NGO, the doctors and pharmacists have decided to conduct regular health camps for these children. While the doctors will be conducting monthly health camps, the pharmacists have offered to give medicines free of cost. Since they are children of daily wage earners and rag pickers, most of them have never had a proper health check-up.
Sonali, a seven-year-old from Indra Colony, who is studying in the school, said she was suffering from irritation on her arms. Daughter of a daily wage earner, she says her parents had no time to take her to hospital. “My parents have been taking me to a Bengali doctor (a quack) in the colony for the past one year, but it only got worse. Today, the doctor here put an ointment, which has provided temporary relief,” she says.
Dr Pinki S. Mahapatra and Dr Deepak Gupta, who conducted the first general health check-up of children studying in the Sector 9 branch of the school today, said they were shocked at the poor health of the children. “Almost all girls are anaemic, while 80 per cent of the boys are also anaemic. Over 70 per cent of the children examined had skin infections ranging from boils to fungal infections, and every second child has dental ailments,” they said.
They say that since the children have never ever been looked after by their parents, who are busy earning a livelihood, some of them were not even aware that they had fever. “We found 12 children having a viral infection, but they were still coming to school as there would be no one to take care of them at home,” said Dr Mahapatra.
Mr Mansa Ram Ahuja, who runs Jeevan Mukt Nishulk Vidyalaya, says Dr Mahapatra first approached her associates in the pharmacy industry — Mr Rajeev Monga, Ms Sonal Kapila and Mr Devinder Sharma. “They promised to provide medicines free of
cost, and then they approached us for a health check-up every month. With their help, we will succeed in our objective of providing a healthy life to these children,” he says.
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