Jangipara, an overgrown village deep inside the district of Hooghly, West Bengal, is just 45 km away from the state capital Kolkata. Yet it seems to be a faraway land as the transportation is still not so smooth. The Block has an area of 164.23 square km with a population of nearly 300,000, mostly rural. Rural poverty is around 30 per cent. More than 35 per cent of the total population belongs to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes categories. Jangipara Community Development Block has only one Rural Hospital and four Primary Health Centres, neither sufficient for the population nor adequately equipped. Against this backdrop of the dearth of healthcare services in the area, Thunder Club has been for years trying to build a medical-aid unit with essential facilities in Jangipara to address the needs of the poor and middle-income group people. They find it very difficult to reach hospitals in Kolkata by road and far more difficult to get admission there. The transportation itself is hazardous and expensive. To minimise these difficulties, Thunder Club has been operating a low-cost ambulance service since 1994. While inaugurating the new ambulance in 2013, noted writer and social activist Mahasveta Devi inspired us to set up a medical-aid unit for the rural multitude and advised us to name it after Bibhuti Bhusan Bandyopadhyay, the celebrated author who was once associated with this locality as a teacher of Jangiapra DN High School.
With the help of innumerable people, land for the Bibhuti Bhushan Seva Sadan was procured and the foundation-laying ceremony was held at Kalitala, Jangipara on April 28, 2018, in the august presence of the retired Hon’ble Justice of Calcutta High Court Sri Ashim Kumar Roy, the then Chairperson of the West Bengal Clinical Establishment Regulatory Commission. Within 13 months the outdoor services were made operational with doctors from different areas rendering invaluable cooperation. It was on May 26, 2019, the outdoor section was formally opened by the renowned physician Dr Sukumar Mukhopadhyay, the Chief Guest being Justice Ashim Kumar Roy. Since then the outdoor unit has been running having the assistance of dedicated doctors. Distribution of medicines among the needy is being done regularly by qualified nurses. We also initiated providing oxygen with very nominal charges during the pick wave of Covid and the service is still going on as same. Thalassemia screening among school children has also been undertaken at regular intervals.
The feather that has been recently attached to the crown of our beloved health institution is the Eye Operation Theatre with the name of Dr Rajendra Golcha Eye OT in the daycare arrangement. Since its inauguration by the respected Golcha family on 16th October 2022, more than a hundred patients have already been successfully operated on within three months.
The feather that has been recently attached to the crown of our beloved health institution is the Eye Operation Theatre with the name of Dr Rajendra Golcha Eye OT in the daycare arrangement. Since its inauguration by the respected Golcha family on 16th October 2022, more than a hundred patients have already been successfully operated on within three months.
