INTRODUCTION
Rural sensitisation programme for medical students and young health professionals
Rural sensitisation programmes are 3-day sensitisation programmes being organised at Tribal Health Initiative, Sittilingi and Gudalur Adivasi Hospital, Gudalur, to expose medical students, postgraduate students and junior doctors to rural life and problems, models of community health, and to explore their role in contributing to healthcare in the country. During the camps you will have the opportunity to:
- Stay in a rural area for 3 days
- See the real India first-hand – its people, dreams, and problems
- Travel to remote villages and interact with people there
- Meet resource persons from various fields and learn
- Make friends with like-minded individuals
- Be part of a movement to make our country better
Background
Mainstream medical and health professionals’ education does not provide opportunities for students to experience actual contexts of health problems in rural India. The environment of medical colleges educates students in mainstream medical knowledge and practices in large hospitals and tertiary care. However, there are widening disparities in health and poor access to healthcare, particularly in rural parts of our country. There is a mismatch between the settings where education takes place and where health work is most needed.
An increasing number of young doctors are dissatisfied with the trends in mainstream healthcare and are searching for alternatives. They are looking for opportunities to experiment, innovate, become entrepreneurs, and make a change in the current health scenario.
We have also appreciated the impact of the programme NIRMAN, started in Maharashtra by Dr. Abhay and Dr. Rani Bang, which aims to identify, nurture, and organise young change-makers to solve various societal problems. We wanted to develop a programme along similar lines, appropriate to South India.
There have been many experiments across the country in the NGO sector that provide health delivery systems linked with efforts in related fields such as school education, food security, livelihood, housing, land rights, and community empowerment. Tribal Health Initiative (THI), Sittilingi and ASHWINI and ACCORD in Gudalur are two such initiatives in South India. Young health professionals can benefit from exposure to such experiments through the rural sensitisation programme. We hope such exposure may inspire young people to think about their role in addressing the country’s health challenges.
To address this gap, we started the 3-day Rural Sensitisation Programme (RSP) for medical students and junior doctors. RSP was organised to provide MBBS students and young doctors exposure to alternative approaches to healthcare, interactions with primary healthcare practitioners, and discussions on healthcare issues. The response was overwhelming, with about 150 students requesting to participate in RSP 2019. The programme was first launched at the Tribal Health Initiative in 2017 and later at Gudalur Adivasi Hospital in May 2019.
RSP 2025 Dates for ASHWINI (Association for health welfare in the Nilgiris)
May 29,30,31 -2025
Applications start on April 10th 2025. Click Here to Apply
Acceptance is on first come first serve basis. Number of seats available – 25
Only 4th years, final years, interns and doctors need apply. We propose to take only 4 from one college – so the first 4 will get booked and the rest waitlisted. If there are not enough applicants from other colleges, then the waitlisted candidates will be booked into the camp.
FAQs
Experiential learning about rural health- a three-day camp in ASHWINI- Gudalur Adivasi Hospital, Gudalur
Mainstream medical and health professionals’ education does not provide opportunity for students to experience actual contexts in which health care is practiced in rural India. The environment of medical colleges, educate students in mainstream medical knowledge and practice in large hospitals and tertiary care. However, there are widening disparities in health and poor access to health care particularly in rural parts of our country. There is mismatch between the settings where education takes place, and where health work is much needed.
There have been many experiments across the country in the NGO sector of providing health delivery systems that engage actively with the local context and are thus linked with efforts in related fields such as school education, food security, livelihood, housing etc (which are increasingly recognized as the social determinants of health). One such experiment is the work of ASHWINI, Gudalur in Tamil Nadu. Young health professionals like you can benefit from exposure to such experiments through the rural health camp. We hope such an exposure, may make you think about your role in addressing the country’s health problems.
What is the rural health camp?
The rural health camp is an experiential learning process for medical students, postgraduates and young doctors to expose them to the work of ASHWINI. You will be exposed to the health work in the hospital, community health work, school education, livelihood and agriculture work of ASHWINI. You will talk to health workers, people working in coffee & tea estates, people in the Adivasi munnetra sangam and the villagers to understand their stories, experiences and perspectives. Through the observations, individual and group reflections and discussions, we hope that we can draw out together a broader map of the country’s health problems and ways of addressing them. The process will be facilitated by a group of resource persons who have been committed to making medical education a transformative process as well as equipping students and young doctors to be more relevant to the context around them. We will start with health, but the discussions will move beyond health. We hope that through the group process we may understand ways of supporting you in your quest for understanding health problems and your role in society. The rural health camp will involve community living, getting to know and learning from each other.
Is this programme for you?
If you are concerned about the country’s health problems and want to move out of the confines of the medical college to see what is happening in the community. If you want to explore a different perspective to thinking about medicine, meet like-minded people who think differently. If you are trying to find ways in which you can contribute to solving the problems of society, then this programme is for you.
Rural health camp programme
Resource persons: Clinical specialists, Community Health Professionals; Social workers, Architects, Engineers, Educationalists, Agriculturists. For more info on ASHWINI , www.ashwini.org
Reaching here
Please take a print out of this or save it on your phone for reference.
Reach the previous day evening/night or early morning on the day of the RSP.
All can plan to return early the next day if you don’t find convenient bus/train to get back
the same day after the RSP.
If Travelling Via Mysore-Remember that you should have left Mysore latest by 5.30pm as the
Bandipur-Mudumalai forest gates close by 9pm.
It is just 10minutes drive from Gudalur town to reach our campus. Ask for Adivasi hospital (New
Building)
via Mysore
Take the night train Kaveri express from Chennai at 9.15pmwhich reaches Mysore at 6.40am. Take
an auto to Mysore bus stand and take a bus to Gudalur which takes 3hrs. All buses from Mysore to
Ooty will pass via Gudalur . Ooty is just 1hr 30min past Gudalur.
You could also take Shatabdiat 6am or Vandhe Bharat train on the previous day from Chennai to
Mysore and from Mysore bus stand take any bus that comes to Ooty and get down at Gudalur.
You also have direct buses from Chennai to Mysore.
via Coimbatore
Reach Coimbatore by Train or Bus. Then take direct bus to Gudalur or to Ooty and then hop on to
another bus to reach Gudalur.Coimbatore to Gudalur takes 5hrs by road.
Take direct bus to Ooty from Bangalore &all these buses pass via Gudalur.You have to choose Ooty
while booking tickets on KSRTC.in to look for all the buses to Gudalur. You will have to book ticket to
Ooty and get down at Gudalur. You can also take bus or train to Mysore and take another bus to
Gudalur.
Two night buses have permit to cross the forest at night which will reach Gudalur around 3-4am.You
will have night autos available in the town.
Travel from Trivandrum/Calicut/Kerala
Calicut to Gudalur is 3hours by road. You have train, RajaRani express from Trivandrum to Nilambur
road.You have plenty of buses to Perinalmanna or Nilambur .Last bus from Nilambur to Gudalurand
visa versa is at 6pm.