She Carried Her Brother 8 Kms to This Hospital. Look Within.

Godda, Jharkhand: The pictures showed an 11-year-old girl, carrying her brother on her shoulders, as they teetered slowly to a hospital eight kilometres away. The young girl, Malti Tudu, and her younger sibling Michael, were the most moving slide show of just how hard it is to get medical help in the interiors of Jharkhand. Since NDTV reported on their case, the family has been swamped with offers of help, gratefully accepted.

Like several acts of bravery, Malti's walk was also one of desperation. There is a government-run clinic in her village of Chandna that is meant to provide basic care for residents. But for months, a doctor has not made the mandated weekly visit. So inside, a health worker, wearing a pair of shorts and a vest, is doubling up as doctor.
 Ganesh Kisku's job is to travel to villages and educate people about life-threatening diseases, but he knows he cannot leave the centre. "A doctor is supposed to visit once every week, even that is hardly enough for a hospital supposed to look after 5,000 people. We need many things here, but have nothing, so I manage," said Mr Kisku.

A few hundred metres away, the villagers of Chandna are trying to stave off an epidemic of cerebral malaria. Malti's walk to a full-fledged hospital has saved her brother's life; she knew she had to act because her parents died of the disease last year. "There is no ground-level development or improvement. It's all on paper," said 45-year-old Manoj Sah, sharing the frustration and disillusionment borne of a hapless fight.

The state capital of Ranchi is 350 kilometres away; other private health care is available in the pilgrim town of Deoghar, about 75 kilometres away, but its expensive private hospitals might as well not exist for the 13 lakh residents of Godda, a large town nearby.

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They line up instead at the government-run Sadar hospital. At the ward for malaria patients, not a single fan works; this has been the case for years, allege locals. Malti and her brother are also admitted here, eating their food off steel plates on the floor, like other patients. A senior doctor, CK Sahi, blames the paucity of space; his staff is doing the best it can, he claims. "The situation here is just 'bhagwan bharose' (in God, we are forced to trust)," says RTI activist Abhijeet Tanmay.
 On average, government-run hospitals have a 40 per cent shortage of doctors; for rural parts the shortage drops to 60 per cent.

That's healthy, by the standards of Jharkhand, where a third of rural hospitals have no doctors at all. They are run entirely by health workers and nurses.

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Malti and Michael may be safer now than they were last week, but lakhs like them have no one and nowhere to turn to.

To help Malti Tudu, please send cheques or demand drafts in the name of:

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Borga Hembram
Account Number: 32924997542
State Bank of India
Chandna Branch
Godda District, Jharkhand

Additional details for online transactions:
Branch Code: 005344
IFSC Code: SBIN0005344

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