Health survey for Redbank

TT, Siliguri, Dec. 7: Junior doctors and interns of North Bengal Medical College and Hospital and North Bengal Dental College and Hospital will conduct a survey on the closed Redbank Tea Estate to find out the health status of workers and their family members.

The survey will be conducted in the middle of December under the banner of Medical Service Centre (MSC), a voluntary organisation of junior doctors and interns in the medical college and the dental college.

"Some tea gardens in the Dooars are shut for a few years. As the workers there are left with no source of income, they are unable to buy essentials like food items and medicines. This has led to nutritional deficiencies among workers and their family members, many of whom are suffering from under-nourishment-related diseases. Redbank Tea Estate is once such garden which is closed for over two years. So, we are planning to conduct a survey in the garden in mid-December to find the health status of workers and their families and assess their nutritional deficiencies," said Apurba Mondal, an intern in the dental college and a member of the MSC.

A group of 12 doctors and interns will visit the garden for the survey, said Mondal.

More than 30 people have died because of suspected malnutrition and several other diseases on the Redbank estate near Banarhat in Jalpaiguri district since it was shut in October 2013.

"Lack of nutrition gives rise to conditions like anaemia and low blood pressure and chronic diseases of liver, kidney and heart. During the survey, we will visit the houses of workers and prepare a list of food items they consume, number of meals per day, number of family members, deaths, if any, in their families in the past two years and cause of the deaths. The doctors in the team will examine the workers to find out the ailments they are suffering from," Mondal said.

The survey report will be submitted to the authorities of the medical college and the dental college.

"We will urge the authorities of the medical college and the dental college to take up a medical check-up on a larger scale in closed tea gardens. As the tertiary medical and dental institutions in north Bengal, the NBDCH and NBMCH can take up such an initiative," said Mondal.