India News | Basic Health Facilities Missing, Kin Carry Ill Woman on Shoulders for 12 Km to See Doctor

Uttarkashi (U'khand), Jul 19 (PTI) Exposing the rickety health infrastructure in remote villages of the country, a 52-year-old ill woman was carried by her family members on their shoulders, for a distance of 12 kilometres, to reach the nearest medical facility in Badiyar area of Uttarakhand.

Shakuntala Devi, a resident of Dingadi village in Uttarkashi district, was suffering from acute dehydration and fever for a week. When the homemade remedies did not work, her kin decided to carry her on their shoulders to see a doctor in Sarnol, 12 km away.

Also Read | New Delhi: Woman Who Gave Birth Outside Was Offered Admission, but Didn't Return With Paper, Says Safdarjung Hospital.

They put the woman into a chair and carried her on a "dandi" (a frame made of bamboos), and bore it on their shoulders to take her to the first doctor available.

"This is the sorry state of affairs of health facilities in about eight villages of Badiyar in the district despite 22 years of Uttarakhand's creation and more than seven decades of our Independence," social worker Kailash Rawat said.

Also Read | Swavlamban 2022: Varuna, Drone That Can Carry Human, Unveiled in Presence of PM Narendra Modi in Delhi.

Villages that face total absence of medical facilities in Badiyar are Sar, Dingadi, Gothuka, Panti, Kimdar and Levtadi, he said.

The social worker said not only health, there are no proper roads or educational facilities in the area.

"Not just Shakuntala Devi, many sick people from the area have been taken on 'dandis' to nearest health centres, and several of them succumbed on the way," he added.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)