STORY OF EKTA NIKETAN

OUR STORY

EKTA NIKETAN is a TB centre in the middle of a village in India where a group of villagers diagnose, treat and advise TB patients, and are skilled to keep records just as in an institution in a city - a TB centre unlike other TB centres. Ekta Niketan is a community TB project in a remote tribal area of India where primary health care does not reach villages.

The TB centre was founded by Janet Ganguli, a British nurse, who lived and worked in a remote village in Jharkhand in mid-70s. She trained village health workers and set up this centre in 1983. The work is now carried out by the villagers themselves.

Most TB Patients at Ekta Niketan are very thin and weak. Often they spend all their money at local untrained practitioners or private doctors in town. To attend Ekta Niketan, patients make long journeys - bust, train, auto-rickshaw, motorbike, bi-cycle orby ffoot. The need for health care in this area is very great as government facilities are in a poor state.

Ekta Niketan reaches the unreached.

JANET ELIZABETH GANGULI

A British nurse who live and worked in a remote tribal village in India and inspired villagers to build their own health centre.

"Under an Indian Sky - Ten Years in a Bihar village" - a Penguin publication is now out of print. For an extract of the book, click here.

MEMORIAL AT EKTA NIKETAN

Every year villagers gather on 7 May to pay respect to Janet. Women bring new sarees; they put on the plaque before they wear. Click here.

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