Overcoming shortages of funds, absence of decent health infra, including doctors, a remote village, Bhosi located in Maharashtra is showing the way of how rural India can beat Covid-19 against all odds.
Where is Bhosi?
A blip on google maps, Bhosi is located in the Bhokar Taluka of Nanded district. It has a tiny population of 6,000 people.
The story of Bhosi's fightback began precisely two months ago, when, after a wedding ceremony, a girl of the village was found infected with Coronavirus. This was followed by the detection of another five Covid cases in the following week. This increase in the number of infected obviously led to fear and panic in the village.
But taking a lead, the Zilla Parishad Member Prakash Deshmukh Bhosikar, at that time, took the initiative to organize a health camp in the village. This was held in coordination with the Gram Panchayat and the Health Department to conduct Covid tests. During the Rapid Antigen Test and RT-PCR tests that followed revealed that 119 people were Covid-19 positive.
The path of isolation
Bhosi understood the problem, and showed the way of fighting the Covid-19 pandemic by simply adopting the path of isolation.
It was decided to isolate the patients to break the chain of Covid-19 spreading to others. Accordingly, all the infected people were persuaded to go and live on their fields for a period of 15 to 17 days, as mandated by the guidelines of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare for people with mild infections.
Then arose the question of those who did not own farms like the farm labourers and others. They were accommodated in a makeshift 40 feet by 60 feet shed on Bhosikar’s own farm.
Even in isolation, the village health worker and Anganwadi sevika, Ashatai, visited the patients in the fields every day and interacted with them. This gave them a sense of being taken care of. It was ensured that those isolated were provided with food and medicines.
With the cooperation and teamwork, after a period of 15 to 20 days of isolation, the infected villagers returned home now as a Corona free.
This was of course preceded by a health check-up.
Elaborating on this exercise to identify and isolate the Covid-19 affected, Bhosikar says: “A month and a half has passed since then and no new patient has been found in the village. Covid can be fought effectively by adopting the age-old path of isolation – as was being done during the days of plague – even in villages without adequate health facilities.”
In fact those who underwent isolation too agree with him. Lakshmibai Akkemwad, who spent a fortnight in quarantine on the fields said: “Separation is the only way to save the villagers from getting infected.”
Praising the efforts of this village, the Nanded Zilla Parishad CEO Varsha Thakur Ghuge said that the Bhosi pattern is a good example of joint coordination between the villagers, people's representatives and the administration, worthy of implementation in other villages of the district and elsewhere.
