It all started with Laliltendu Jena getting deeply moved by a newspaper picture of a man dusting off ants from a chapati in a tiny eatery before taking a bite while his son was being treated at a leading government hospital in Cuttack. Thus started his intense desire to do something meaningful for the innumerable caregivers who toil day and night in the hospitals just to see their loved ones recover fully. For many of these caregivers, securing a decent meal is a real difficult task both due to lack of resources, accessibility and also time factor.
Sukham Annam project led by Bhubaneswar-based Kartavya Foundation is an effort to provide free coupon-linked meals to caregivers in two major hospitals in Cuttack. Every day, as part of the project, the foundation offers 1,100 meals (550 meals lunch and 550 meals for dinner) per day at the SCB Medical College and 900 meals (450 meals for lunch and 450 meals for dinner) per day at the Acharya Harihar Regional Cancer Centre.
Talking about the project, Lalitendu Jena, managing trustee of the Kartavya Foundation, says, “There was no grand planning behind the project. It all happened organically. I remember seeing a newspaper picture and reading its caption (in the year 2000) that really moved me deeply. A father had brought his ailing son to the SCB Medical College, Cuttack. The picture was about the father dusting off ants from the roti at a tiny eatery near the hospital before eating it. The picture stayed in my mind like a sharp image that just refuses to leave.”
He adds, “In 2005, once I fell sick and that time I went to a government hospital in Bhubaneswar. And the hospital was so overcrowded that there were patients lying on the ground too. It was a difficult sight. While waiting at the medicine shop’s queue, there was an old man ahead of me. And he did not have the money to pay for all the medicines the doctor had prescribed. Seeing his helplessness, I offered to pay the money to the cashier so that the old man could get his medicines. These are the true life experiences that inspired me to start Kartavya Foundation. I have always believed that for any society to prosper, education and health-care facilities need to be inclusive. That also became our foundation’s core areas of focus. In 2009, the foundation started a Pathological lab at Kalyani village in Odisha. We were distributing free medicines to the needy. We also conducted health camps to create health awareness among women which was a great success. But navigating through the village politics became increasingly difficult to handle. And that made us close the lab with a heavy heart. But as they say when one door is closed, another one opens if you have the right intent.”
During those days of reflection, Jena’s mind went back to the father, who was a caregiver and his struggle to find food for him. That image in the newspaper is the seed from which he started the Sukham Annam project.
Healthcare professionals agree that in India, caregivers are not really celebrated either at home or at hospitals. And in this context, the Sukham Annam project gains significance. Explaining the project, he says, “The top government hospitals in Odisha attract a lot of patients and their caregivers from faraway places. And most of them are from economically disadvantaged backgrounds and it’s a real struggle for the caregivers to have a decent hygienic meal.”
The Sukham Annam project offers coupon-linked meals which come without any charge. Hospital authorities decide the coupons based on the economic conditions of the caregivers.
Digambar Behera, a 63-year-old man, had come from Begunia village to Cuttack because he wanted to give the best treatment to his wife struggling with constant pain and fatigue. He considers the meals given by the project as a blessing to caregivers like him. “It is a healthy and tasty meal. It felt like a homemade meal. It is a real blessing to have a meal at no cost even as I am waiting for my wife to recover quickly.” There are many like him for whom the project acts as a great advantage.
“We have taken all care to maintain highest quality services right from sourcing the food ingredients, to preparing the meals, packaging it and then distributing. Everything is monitored through CCTV. We have a gas plant at our food preparation centre. Sukham Annam is a sustainable project as it is a solar-powered one. For the smooth operations of all machinery involved, we sent our team for training in Gujarat,” says Jena.
Talking about the challenges of spearheading the project, he says, “To maintain excellent hygiene on a daily basis is the most important one. There can be no compromise on the Standard Operating System. To maintain discipline, hygiene while serving the food at the hospitals, our team members have to be on their toes every single day. Sometimes, pouring rains make the going tough too.”
How difficult is it to sustain this project on a daily basis? “We have worked under different circumstances. Sometimes the ride has been tough too like the recent situation at Cuttack when parts of the city were under curfew. But there is no greater satisfaction than serving a hot nutritious meal to caregivers. During the cyclone, there was a demand for more meals at a short notice and we fulfilled that which was really gratifying.”
Even as this service is really making a difference to many caregivers, a little support from the government can go a long way. “Every day we pay the toll tax twice when our food vans go for distribution and if that could be waived, it can be of help to us, ” says Jena.
Ask him how he looks at the future of the project? “ I want to float in the small waves. I am looking at providing meals for 2,300-2,500 people a day. I take every day as it comes.”
Deepika Sahu has been a journalist for 30 years and she has worked with some of India’s leading media houses. Right now, she is independently engaged in content creation and curation.
Twitter: @menondeepika, Instagram: @moodydeepika, Facebook: Deepika Sahu
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