The Floating Health Clinics Delivering Care to Isolated Island Dwellers

Photo credit: Rishabh Jain. Retrieved from reasonstobecheerful.world.

As the first rays of sunlight fell over the banks of the Brahmaputra River and birds began to chirp, Riturekha Barua, a district program officer (DPO) for a solar-powered boat clinic, was busy ensuring that she had enough medicines, vaccines and other essential medical equipment. In the weeks ahead, she and her team would conduct health camps and check-ups across 18 villages in the Majuli district of India’s northeastern state of Assam.

While Barua and the community workers managed administrative tasks to ensure smooth operations for the medical team, Dr. Saddam Hussain and another medical officer discussed the skin disease outbreak that had become a concern during the rainy season. Pharmacist Apul Kumar Das and the three nurses were responsible for overseeing the distribution of medicines and vaccines, ensuring an adequate supply for the entire month. Das expressed his sense of fortune in being a part of the boat clinic, finding motivation in his role as a frontline worker to continue this important work.

About 2,500 river islands are situated along the course of the Brahmaputra River, and this boat clinic crew is responsible for providing primary health care services to the isolated riverine island community. There is no urban development on these islands, which are populated by small-scale farmers and Indigenous communities. During the annual monsoon season, when the river overflows, over 2.5 million individuals living on these islands face the harsh consequences of flooding. Every year, the flooding forces people to migrate to safe locations or stay in temporary shelters. Even after the flood water subsides, the communities face outbreaks of diseases like dengue, malaria and skin allergies.