Free pill from garden nurse

Nurse Sukhi Parwar at Birpara tea garden
hospital. (Anirban Choudhury)

TT, Alipurduar, Dec. 8: A nurse in Birpara tea garden hospital buys medicines using her money and distributes them among workers who visit her for ailments such as fever, vomiting, diarrhoea and indigestion.

Sukhi Parwar Sajli Baggi is not getting her salary like any other worker in the 14 gardens of Duncans Goenka Group. But the 22-year-old visits the Birpara garden hospital everyday and gives medicines to the needy.

"I was born in this garden and I think it is my moral duty to look after the workers here. My father Abinash Baggi used to work in the garden factory. My elder brother works in a private company in Bangalore. After the management left the garden, our family is run with the money sent by my brother. Apart from me and the father, my mother is also at home. Our quarter is in good condition and we don't face any financial crisis as such," said Sukhi.

Since April, the workers and their families of the Duncans gardens - around 75,000 people in total - have been surviving on food and medicines given by the state government as the company has stopped paying wages and providing rations in the 14 gardens because of financial constraints. More than 50 people have died in the 14 gardens mainly for want of treatment in the past nine months.

Sukhi had completed nursing training at a private institute in Siliguri and then joined the garden hospital four years ago.

"Soon after the management had given up the garden, the doctor also left. I have received offers to join private nursing homes at different places but I decided not to leave the garden because it is my moral responsibility to serve the people who are in distress now," she said.

The money needed to buy the medicines is given to Sukhi by her father.

"I take a little amount of money from my father and with that, I purchase medicines for fever, vomiting, diarrhoea and indigestion. I stay at the hospital from 8am to 4pm. The X-Ray machine in the hospital has been lying defunct for five years. The hospital had 25 beds and an isolation ward. I prepare documents when patients are shifted to Birpara State General Hospital. I have a first-aid box with which I can treat minor injuries. I urgently need antibiotics but they are costly and beyond my capacity to buy," said the nurse.

Birshu Oraon a worker in the garden, 60km from here, said: "Sukhi is doing a great job in the garden hospital. We are getting medicines from her. She calls on patients at home and if necessary, refer them to the Birpara government hospital. She spends long hours at the garden hospital and even tells workers about the precautions to be taken to maintain hygiene."