As a part of mandatory 3 months rural posting during Internship, we were posted at Chiraigaon, Varanasi. The hospital was a rundown building in the middle of a vast expanse of agricultural land. There was poor sanitation, bad health care infrastructure, shabby dormitories for medicos, erratic electricity supply, pathetic roads, no tap water, lots of mosquitoes and frequent sighting of snakes. For obvious reasons, almost all interns would go back to college after few days of forced Rural Picnic! My first exposure to the reality of primary health care in India was quite disheartening. After having spent 5 years of my life in the grueling MBBS program, I found it difficult to overcome the feelings of regret, disillusionment and frustration. I had dreamt of a respectable career in a fancy hospital but now I was exposed to harsh realities that doctors have to face and those were not what I envisioned for myself. I started to think of changing my career by writing the Civil Service examination like some of my friends. By end of the second day, all my colleagues went back to BHU but I decided to stay for few more days to enjoy the rural setting.
On 3rd day of the posting, I came to know that PHC needed to send a doctor for a school health program. Bored and lonely, I volunteered to go to the SOS Village. It was a hot and humid day and my only aim was to quickly finish the assigned job. Realizing my impatience and complete lack of interest, the Director of the SOS village cut short his welcome tea session in his office and accompanied me to the dispensary.
Read the entire article here: https://www.soschildrensvillages.in/hugs-are-more-effective-than-drugs-a-lesson-learnt-in-sos-village/
