Health

“Delivering quality diagnostic and preventive health care services at last-mile settings through trained grassroots health workers.”

Barefoot College Tilonia works with Barefoot-trained doctors, dentists, pathologists, health workers and midwives who combine traditional practices with modern science and technology to improve health in rural communities.

We raise awareness of topics such as hygiene, nutrition, contraception, menstruation and reproductive health, immunisation and HIV prevention.

In the 1970s, Barefoot College Tilonia launched the first of its outreach programmes aiming to improve the health of Tilonia’s rural communities, which were heavily influenced by superstitious beliefs about healthcare. Social workers and Barefoot staff, which included a doctor, visited villages to talk with people about health and how to improve it. The dialogue evolved into a lasting relationship with villagers.

Our first medical campaign identified tuberculosis patients and helped get them treatment.

Later, in the 1980s, Barefoot College trained traditional midwives in modern methods so that they could become change agents for improving health and hygiene. This resulted in a dramatic drop in mother-and-child mortality rates. The model became the basis of the midwifery component of the Indian Government’s accredited Social Health Activists programme.

Today, Barefoot College runs two main health programmes – diagnostic care and preventive care.

Diagnostic care

Barefoot College provides rural communities with diagnostic care through its Health Department, located at the Tilonia campus in Rajasthan. Its infrastructure includes an outpatient department, an admission facility with ten hospital beds, a dental clinic with all the necessary facilities, a pharmacy and a pathology laboratory.

Staffed by three Barefoot Doctors, one Barefoot Nurse, two Barefoot Pathologists and one Barefoot Dentist, it provides services such as general diagnostics, dental check-ups, homeopathic care and pathology tests. Through these the Barefoot College Health Department provides essential medical care to rural communities, improving their overall health and wellbeing.

Preventive care

Barefoot College plays a crucial and proactive role in preventive care, giving particular emphasis to women’s health. Through various initiatives that offer education and training in menstrual hygiene, the reproductive system, ante- and post-natal care and nutrition, rural women have been empowered to make informed decisions about their health.

In addition, to give rural people access to affordable products, Barefoot College has set up units for making sanitary napkins and “Super 5” – a local nutritional product that we have revived. Both units are run by trained women from “last mile” communities. And by training daimas (local midwives), blasevikas (child-carers), Accredited Social Health Activists and Auxiliary Nurses and Midwives, Barefoot College has established a trusted and effective network of grassroots health workers serving the villages around Tilonia.

Sanitary napkin production and supply

The sanitary napkin production unit is led by five illiterate/semi-literate rural women from the most marginalised communities of Rajasthan. The sanitary pads they are 90 percent plastic-free and, crucially, the poor can afford them.

The current production set-up includes different machines for pulverising wood pulp, sealing the pads after the pulp has been added between layers, and sterilising the final product. The unit has a production capacity of 6,000 pads per month, enough to cater to the needs of around 1,000 girls and women in the remote villages of Ajmer, Barmer and Jaipur districts.

We use our strong network of grassroots health leaders to conduct door-to-door marketing and distribution. Not only has the unit destigmatised menstruation in the villages, but it has created a new and sustainable option for the women who work there and who live in the local communities.

“Super 5”nutritional product manufacturing unit

This age-old, long-lost remedy to combat undernourishment in children and iron deficiency in women is a delicious amalgam of five natural, commonly used ingredients – wheat grains, peanuts, sesame seeds, Bengal grams and jaggery – cooked in specific proportions.

A group of rural women manufactures this superfood and distributes / supplies it to children and women. Observational studies have shown that the product is effective in alleviating malnutrition levels in children and women, without nauseous side effects common in similar products on the market.