“BUZURGON KI DEKHBHAL”AT BANDIPORA

BANDIPORA: Hearing, one of the five basic senses, is the ability to perceive sound through an aural organ.    Unfortunately some of us are born without this ability or lose it at various stages of our lives.  Hearing impairment may be due to prolonged exposure to high decibel noise, disease, physical trauma or aging. Loss of hearing due to trauma, illness and aging can be arrested by timely medical intervention.  

However, the rural population is often left bereft of the basic medical attention due to lack of facilities and ignorance.  In order to ameliorate the sufferings of the hearing impaired in the area of Bandipora, 14 Rashtriya Rifles, with the District Administration and Americares took the initiative of providing hearing aid to such patients of remote villages in District Bandipora.  With active cooperation from Americares from Mumbai, medical camps were organized at Gujjar Patti, Panar and Sumlar on 27 Feb 2012.   

A team of one doctor from Americares, an ENT specialist, an audiometerist from Srinagar and three Army medical officers diagnosed over 600 patients from Sumlar, Gujjar Patti, Panar, Kudor, Erin, Aragam and Garoora.  29 hearing aids were provided to the patients free of cost at Kharpura on termination of the camp.  Manzoor Ahmed, a 70 year old man from a remote village appeared to be particularly pleased and had tears of joy on receiving the hearing aid.  “For the first time I could hear the voice of my grand son”.    Accompanied by his grandson, Manzoor Ahmed had attended the medical camp which has now provided him with a ray of hope of leading a normal life.      

On 28 Feb Americares alongwith the Army at Bandipora provided 400 items of clothing to the buzurgs of the Hanji community in camps organized at Lankrishipura and Kulhama.   In continuation with the series of medical camps the local Army formation held medical camps at Chechinar and Budhinar on 28 Feb 2012.  Medical camp was organized at Kharpura on 29 Feb 2012 where 10 wheel chairs, 10 tricycles and 33 hearing aids were provided to the physically challenged and hearing impaired.  Training on basic first aid techniques was also conducted for Asha Health Workers.  

Speaking to this correspondent, the Commander of the Army Brigade said, “This is the first phase of this initiative.  Our focus is the buzurgs of the area. More such camps have been planned in the near future”.  Mr Bashir, the sarpanch from Bunakot said that the relief provided by the Army will go a long way to help the people of Bandipora. A unique feature of the programme was that the Sarpanches were totally involved with the resource mobilization of the people who require the assistance. 

The entire programme of BUZURGON KI DEKHBHAL is part of the initiative of the Army and Civil administration along with the Sarpanches under the ten day “Bandipora Youth Festival” with the aim of fostering a feeling to look after our elders and garnering professional help.