NRL funds construction of new C-NES Boat Clinic

As part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL) has announced a sponsorship amount of Rs. 12 lakhs for the Centre of North East Studies and Policy Research (C-NES) to build an additional boat for its innovative boat clinic initiative in Assam. The first installment of Rs. 4 lakhs was handed over by MD NRL Dr. B. K Das to C- NES Managing Trustee, Sanjoy Hazarika today.

“Among the most marginalized people in Assam, nearly 30 lakh or ten percent of the State’s population live on its islands in the mighty Brahmaputra and for decades have struggled to survive at a basic level,” said C-NES Managing Trustee and journalist of national repute, Sanjoy Hazarika.

“We are delighted to welcome NRL as our newest partner in this mission of taking sustained health care and other development services to this excluded population. Ours is primarily a partnership with the National Rural Health Mission of the State Government but we have important support from the public sector units such as Oil India Ltd and members of the tea industry as also from an international organization such as UNICEF.”

C-NES provides basic health care services, through specially designed boats equipped with laboratories as well as pharmacies on board, to these river islands – it now has boat clinic teams in 13 districts of Assam, a major upscaling from the single district when it began its innovative initiative in 2005 at Dibrugarh. This has been done through a Public Private Partnership (PPP) with NRHM since 2008.

The goal is to reach 10 lakh persons or one third of the state’s vulnerable population who live on islands on the Brahmaputra by 2011-12, with a special focus on women and children, who are the most vulnerable in difficult conditions (Assam has India’s worst Maternal Mortality rate at 480, higher than Bihar or Uttar Pradesh, and a high Infant Mortality Rate). Over 3 lakh persons have been covered so far.

On board are fully fledged medical teams (two doctors, three nurses as well as lab technicians and pharmacists) which conduct regular camps organized through a network of community health workers and organizers in the district.

C-NES’ unique health clinic story began with a single boat, a prototype called Akha in Dibrugarh district in 2005; since then it has spread to other districts to dramatically upscale the programme to reach the socially and geographically excluded groups. The districts covered are Dibrugarh, Tinsukia, Dhemaji, North Lakhimpur, Jorhat, Sonitpur, Morigaon, Barpeta, Nalbari and Dhubri, with new boat clinics soon to commerce work in three new districts: Kamrup, Goalpara, Bongaigaon.

The NRL donated Boat Clinic is likely to be placed at Sonitpur district of Assam.
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Bhaswati Goswami
Communications Officer
C-NES, Guwahati

Guwahati, September 24