THE DRAINAGE AREA OF THE CLINIC

On one side we have ward 23 of bidhannagar municipality that borders our clinic, seperated by a waterbody. the picture shows the rear portion of the residential quarters of the low scio-economic group of people who will avail the facilities of the clinic. Though this place is about 12 mins walk from the E M bye-pass, the houses do not have any sanitary facilities and the people have constructed these bamboo makeshift latrines for themselves. One may relevantly question the usefulness of a municipality in the heart of greater Kolkata, that fails to provide the minimum civic facilities to its people

The other drainage area of the clinic lies as far as the village of Makhaltala, that starts at the base of "Dhapar Dhipi", the dumping ground of the city of Kolkata. The place is extremely unhygenic, but people have built shanties at the base of this artificial mountain of garbage and have started living a life, an unequal fight of survival with the dogs and pigs that abound the place. The village of Makhaltala has no electricity, no conveyance facility nor is there any govt health infrastructure !

This lone goddess stands on guard on the way (aler pathe) in between the waterbodies that abound the region, between the two villages of Makhaltala and Tapuriaghata. Will she help the people, the poor people of this locality in dire health emergencies ?

One may easily guess the answer and so when I first visited the twin villages on 19.10.09, I made up my mind to set up a health facility, as a part of our group's activity at Tapuriaghata, that may be equally accessed by the people of Makhaltala, Tapuriaghata and ward 23 of bidhannagar municipality.