Samarin Bai, a 50-year-old Baiga tribal woman from Mahamai village lives in the dense Achanakmar forests of Bilaspur district, Chhattisgarh. A few days back, she decided to see a doctor for the big lump that had developed at the base of her neck and various other problems. Although there is a government sub-center six kilometers away, she knew that there was only one auxiliary nurse cum midwife (ANM) who wouldn't be able to help. So she trudged through 14 km of rain-soaked forest to a health center in Bamhani village set up by a local NGO, Jan Swasthya Sahyog (JSS).
A doctor visits this center every week and he diagnosed a dangerous thyroid enlargement which needed quick surgery. Samarin Bai waded across a monsoon swollen river and was transported by the JSS van to their hospital at Ganiyari, some 70km away. She is recovering there now. Yogesh Jain of JSS narrates this story as an…
