Towards a Disease Free Nation – Rutuja Patil contributes her bit

BELGAUM: A young girl who is pursuing her engineering was found asking inmates of Peeranwadi whether their children have been provided with proper medicines or not, surely you would say we have gone nuts.

But this is the truth, meet Rutuja Patil who wants to make India a Polio free nation!

Rutuja, a LEADer of Jain College of engineering, whose mother is a physician, had once told Rutuja that, W H O (World Health Organization) personnel will be coming to conduct a survey, in which they will be choosing certain remote places and taking details of polio cases in remote areas. The instance something struck Rutuja’s mind and she decided that she will also have a survey for the same reason.

She chose Peeranawadi area on the outskirts of Belgaum for the survey. She sought the help of a physician who is nearby the locality and learnt what should be asked. The doctor was happy with Rutuja’s initiative and gave her all the information.
One fine day, she along with her team went to Mujavar Galli of Peeranawadi and started going to each home and asked them about the medications/vaccinations done or which were provided to their children who are between the age of 0 to 5. In a span of two days she visited around 150 plus homes and collected the details of medications given to the children. She found out that out 250 plus children surveyed, about 230 were provided the proper polio and other medications. She was happy that there were no active polio cases in the area.

Rutuja also helped some pregnant women in getting the “Mother’s Card” – a privilege card which is given for free by the government.

The main motto behind conducting this survey is this that the W H O will announce India as a Polio Free Nation if NO Active Cases of Polio are brought into light for 3 consecutive years. And Rutuja has contributed a large part to it! She is now planning to assist the W H O officials in another survey which they will be conducting in Boragaon village of Chikodi. This is her bigger vision of making India a Polio Free Nation.

Rutuja is a proud LEADer now and is thankful to LEAD for supporting her by providing her with a platform to her.