24-year-old Halima from Dhanbad district is the only female Correspondent Changemakerin Jharkhand who belongs to a religious minority background. Halima has had her share of social work experience. She has worked in 30 villages of her district while spreading awareness about HIV/AIDS and other health issues. Other than health, she wants to work on issues like forced evictions, gender inequality…

Halima Ejaj

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Villagers from Jharkhand's Chatrutad village are a lucky lot. They have a newly built primary health centre (PHC) that has the potential to be beneficial to at least 30 villages nearby. However, their luck stops there as there are no doctors in the PHC. The ANM health workers that currently manage the premises give over-the-counter medicines to patients and have no expertise to deal with serious ailments.

Moreover, there is no water, electricity or support staff to take care of the PHC. Local villagers still have to travel about 30 kms (19 miles) to reach the nearest hospital. Some of the villagers that our community correspondent Halima Ejaj spoke to say sometimes they ignore going to the hospital as they do not have enough fare to travel that far.

Also see: The Story of A Medical Sub-Centre, Its Neglect and Revival