In this series of interviews Covid Response Watch brings you the voices of doctors, health workers, social activists and others, working at the grassroots, speaking about the multiple impacts of the Covid pandemic on the lives of ordinary Indian citizens.
Some aspects of the Covid disaster are new and unprecedented but many of them are also a continuation of the crisis that existed well before the pandemic hit Indian shores. And the crisis is not just on the medical front but perhaps even more so on the social, economic, political and even cultural fronts.
Here we talk to Dr Priyadarsh, who was working with the famous Shaheed Hospital in Dalli-Rajhara in Chhattisgarh for the last two years. The hospital was set up in 1981 as part of a vision of the late Shankar Guha Neogi, the legendary trade union leader who was killed by a henchman of local industrialists at Bhilai in 1992. He dreamt of a hospital for workers, built and managed by workers themselves.
Dr Priyadarsh is also an active member of the Yumetta Foundation that is currently carrying out a range of health and nutrition related activities among underprivileged populations and helping health system strengthening through various initiatives.
