IIT-Kanpur & STEP HBTI students organise health camp at Maksoodabad village

KANPUR: Going beyond the confines of the academic campus, students of IIT Kanpur are actively participating in social works in nearby villages under the Unnat Bharat Abhiyan. Over 100 students from IIT-Kanpur and MBA students of STEP HBTI stepped out of the campus on their cycles to create health awareness in the nearby Maksoodabad village on Saturday.

This initiative was carried out under the Unnat Bharat Abhiyan (UBA), a government of India scheme with IIT-Kanpur as a Regional Coordinator to motivate students of higher educational institutions to work for the upliftment and development of villages. STEP HBTI, and Rama University were partner institutes for this outreach initiative. The students enquired about the health ailments of the villagers and filling out a health survey form.

Along with the IITians, ASHA and ANM workers of CHC Kalyanpur helped in making Ayushman cards, and the CSC team was around to help with the registration of other cards. The health camp was inaugurated by ‘Sarpanch’ Narendra Kumar and Prof Sandeep Sangal and Sudhanshu Shekhar Singh, along with Prof CK Tiwari and Yogesh Puri of STEP HBTI.

Prof Sandeep Sangal, Coordinator of Unnat Bharat Abhiyan (UBA) IITK, encouraged the students and said that through them the awareness about health and government schemes would increase among the villagers, and health services would be made available to the needy and more people, in turn, filling the service delivery gaps.

The villagers showed great enthusiasm as they gathered in large numbers to get their Ayushman cards and collect related information. Nearly 20 people were registered for Ayushman during the outreach. It was observed that most villagers were not using the Government App that provides access to information on the same.

A team of doctors from RK Devi Eye Hospital led by senior eye specialist Dr. Awadh Dubey, screened 75 patients out of which 12 had cataract, 3 had Pterygium and 48 were advised to wear spectacles. Rama University’s team was also there for health screening, and they screened 80 people and found high sugar levels amongst 4 and high blood pressure amongst 24 people.

Nearly 150 people attended the camp that went on till 4 pm, echoing the success of the initiative in creating health awareness amongst the villagers. The involvement of students and various healthcare professionals made this event a significant step towards the upliftment and development of the village.