Dr Suraj and Dr Janki Maske completed their MBBS and BDS and have settled in a tiny hamlet to fulfil their obligation to society

Bang in the middle of the COVID19 pandemic, a young couple arrived in a remote village of Maharashtra’s Chandrapur district and made it their home. They also brought with them, two degrees – one MBBS and one BDS – some social service lessons and resolve.

Three years later, Sobat Foundation set up by Dr Suraj Maske and his wife Dr Janki Maske run a health (with dental) clinic in Geora village, with day care facilities, an attached generic medicine pharmacy, an ambulance and are serving 50 villages in the district. “We have clocked 34000 OPD visits so far,” says Dr Maske proudly. Born to parents in Chandrapur who had not cleared high school, he had been determined to fulfil his grandfather’s dream of serving the poor. With that goal he entered the Nagpur Indira Gandhi Medical College, but remained uncertain how to go about it. All he knew is that in neighbouring Gadchiroli, Dr Abhay and Dr Rani bang had set up the Society for Education, Action, Research in Community Health (SEARCH) that had been serving the community while doing groundbreaking health research for decades.

“One day in my second year of MBBS I went to SEARCH to ask them about their work. I could not meet them but learnt about a programme SEARCH runs for young people to encourage them to take up this work. I joined Nirman and there has been no looking back. I also receive a monthly fellowship from SEARCH for doing this work,” says Dr Maske. Nirman is a programme run by SEARCH that was set up with the goal of building a bench strength of young people committed to social service in various capacities.

Setting out on his own was not an easy decision but what worked in his favour is the fact that he had already been working in a primary health centre in the area as the first MBBS doctor in many years. When after a falling out he quit that job, both the decisions to stay back and start his own clinic and the demand from the people to do so, happened organically. In the last three years he has also moved to a more holistic approach, trying to address people’s issues beyond healthcare. “We have started fruit plantations in several villages which we have handed over to widows or unsupported women so that they can get some subsistence out of it. We have also started sports events in villages to encourage the youth and for community building,” he says proudly. The medical services are highly subsidised but not free. “People often do not value a service which is completely free,” he explains

He has also been lucky in his choice of a life partner.

Dr Janki Maske, a trained dentist grew up in these parts and has no problem living a life where there are few luxuries. The couple’s tiny setup atop their clinic is simple; everywhere there are signs that this is in essence an extension of their work. The tiny balcony is crowded with guava saplings for the plantations. But Dr Janki’s challenges go beyond lifestyle. Dentistry is not a very common thing in these parts and people are reluctant to sit in the dentist’s chair even though oral hygiene is poor and rampant use of oral tobacco makes the region a hotbed of oral cancers. “Few people here use toothpaste, only the young do. There are mostly tree barks and other things used. People are scared to come and show me. But even among those that have managed to detect oral cancers in fairly advanced stages, many did not even make it,” she says.

Sobat (meaning companionship in Marathi) Foundation works both at the clinic level and the field level where camps are held at regular intervals. The terrain is such that the first requirement of a medical setup is a sturdy SUV; Dr Maske started off with a second hand vehicle in which he travels to remote locations for house calls. On occasions, particularly in the monsoon season, the car has to travel through overflowing river and canal waters that submerge the roads. No other vehicle would even dare to traverse those roads which exist only in name.

His working conditions do not bother Dr Maske. He is already looking for another challenge – the increasing plastic waste in these villages and how to go about solving the problem.