Alibaug: An IAS officer in Maharashtra has hit upon a novel idea to rope in doctors to combat the menace of malnutrition in tribal areas, by offering them ‘weekend getaways’ at hotels in those places.
Raigad district collector Dr Vijay Suryawanshi, said the aim was to make the doctors conduct health camps in hospitals in the tribal areas on weekends.
“We tried this concept in the Matheran hill station region. Now, hotel associations in Matheran and Karjat in the district have agreed to provide free rooms for doctors to stay over the weekends,” he said.
Karjat tehsil is a ‘weekend getaway’ destination where a number of celebrities also have their farmhouses. The area, which is equidistant from Mumbai and Pune, has seen a rise in cases of malnutrition but like many small towns, it faces a perennial shortage of specialist doctors to cater to its over two lakh population.