Breaking the link between poverty and disability

Almost back to back with the visit of the Lifeline Express to Chhattisgarh, Tata Steel sponsored this fully equipped “hospital on rails” to head to Orissa’s Dhenkanal district. This is the fourth time the Company has conducted its camps in the State, after Gopalpur, Daitani and Jajpur, and the twelfth time that Tata Steel has sponsored a project of the Lifeline Express. A total of about 90 camps have been conducted across India since 1991, of which Tata Steel has sponsored the greatest number, over 50,000 disabled people have benefited from Tata Steel’s efforts.

Promoted by the Impact India Foundation to prevent and alleviate needless disability, all the projects, across the world, including the Lifeline Express in India, are run by local people who contribute resources. Most importantly, the programme helps break the link between disability and poverty, the prime cause and often the consequence of each other.

During its visit to Dhenkanal, the Hospital on Rails was stationed at Meramundali, a little known and remote railway station in this district of Orissa. Resources committed by Indian Railways, Impact India, Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, Government of Orissa and Tata Steel Limited contributed to the success of the project.

On January 3, the Hon’ble Member of Parliament (MP), Mr Tathagata Satpathy, Hon’ble Member of the Legislative Assembly, Mr Sudhir Kumar Samal and Collector (Dhenkanal), Mr J Ahmed Khan inaugurated the Lifeline Express. It was stationed there till January 25, 2007, during which time four teams of doctors from Tata Main Hospital provided free diagnostic, medical and surgical treatment for disabilities associated with eye ailments, hearing impairments, orthopaedic difficulties and congenital cleft lips and cleft palates. Since November 2006, Tata Steel Rural Development Society had been publicising the visit of the Lifeline Express in Dhenkanal and Angul districts of Orissa.