( With vast parts of rural Assam still de...)Ships to the Rescue of Medically Deprived Assamese,Health

With vast parts of rural Assam still deprived of modern health infrastructure , a private initiative is taking medical care by ship to the remote islands of the river Brahmaputra.

The Centre for North East Studies and Policy Research (C-NES), a trust established in 2000, has started the Ships of Hope in a Valley of Flood programme, under which ships carrying medical personnel are conducting camps in the islands of the Brahmaputra.

There are around 3,000 such islands inhabited by more than 2.5 million people. In most of these islands, there are no health centres, schools or power supply, Sanjoy Hazarika, a managing trustee of C-NES, said.

With two ships - Akha (meaning hope in Assamese) and Shehnaz, C-NES is conducting camps free of cost in the river islands in Dibrugarh, Tinsukia and Dhemaji districts of the state.

"We started with Dibrugarh in 2005, as we had a better base there. The project has been extended to two other districts. We hope to take our services to the lower Assam districts of Dhubri and Barpeta," Hazarika told IANS.

The health camps are now concentrating on immunisation and general check up facilities. They are also dealing with malaria and Japanese encephalitis cases.

As most of the people on these islands, comprising Assamese, Bengalis, Bihari migrants and tribals, are cattle herders the ships also carry a veterinary team each, which trains local to treat their animals.

A team of 25 personnel, which includes doctors and nurses of the local health department, is conducting 15 to 20 camps every month. It travels on the ships for around 7 to 10 days a month.

The initiative was started with an amount of $20,000 given by the World Bank to the project as an award for winning the WB India Development Marketplace competition in 2004.

Now, the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef), Indian Oil, Assam Oil Company, Oil and Natural G
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