Dr.D.N.Mund (MBBS) - HEAL THE WORLD

We live in a nation, where you get car loan at 5 % but education loan at 8%. Here rice is Rs. 40/- per kilogram but a SIM card is absolutely free. Here the shoes are sold in a AC showroom, but vegetables that we eat  are sold on the pavement. Finally a pizza that you orders reaches home faster than an ambulance. This is the state of infrastructure in India, even while we got a pool of intellectuals, which is un-doubtedly the best in the world.

But could you imagine even  how worse would be the scenario  of tribal Odisha 55 years ago. There were no road connectivity. The district was rich of forest. There were not only man eating tigers but cannibals as well. It was the year 1956 when a youngman of  Kalahandi district of Odisha graduated from SCB Medical College of Cuttack. Instead of staying back at Cuttack, Bhubaneswar or Puri, he prefered to return back to his roots so as to serve the common men.  The person we are talking about is Dr. Direndra Nath Mund(MBBS). HE was born at village Bramhana Chindia, a remote village of Kalahandi district in the year 1933. Kalahandi is the most backward district of Odisha till date. Every other year it grabs the attention of the national media either for famine, poverty, selling children or hunger deaths.

In the year 1957 after graduating with a medical degree he joined American Friends Service as a Medical Officer at Barpali, Dist. Bargarh . He worked relentlessly to take care of  the health and hygiene of the people, mostly consisting of farmers and the weavers of Sambalpuri ikat handloom sarees. It was this organization which in-fact introduced water-shield cemented toilet pans popularly known as Barpali Latrines for the first time in this region. Prior to this, people were attending natures call on open field.  

[an outer view of his clinic while patients are waiting]

People flux from as far as Central, Southern, Northern Odisha  and adjacent state of Chattisgarh day on day off, to get the cure for their ailments.  Even at this grand-old age of 77 years, every morning till evening he attends his patients religiously in his clinic. Dr.Mund recounts the initial years of his profession as a doctor. After Republic of India constituted in the year 1956 for almost half a decade Indian Rupee was not yet widely circulated in this remote region. The economy was resorted solely on barter system. In the 50’s and 60’s often he used to get his consultancy fees in kind, instead of cash. Patients used to bring vegetables, milk and sacks of rice paddy as the consultancy fee.

He remembers an event of his life.  In 1967 one night while he was driving alone back home after attending a patient at village Sikirdi, at midnight his jeep stuck in the sand of the Ranjh river bed, as there was no bridge to cross the river. He was unmoved there for couple of hours. At around 1.30 past midnight four bullock-carts passed that river. One person came near to him holding an kerosene lantern to check what went wrong. When that commuter  recognized him as Dr.Mund he called the rest. All of them together pulled out the vehicle from the sand to the edge of the river. So poor was the state of  infrastructure of Odisha.

Very young at age he realised the role of education on building the life of an individual and the society in turn. He took the initiative all alone to answer the issue of of mass-illiteracy. He has set up a  High School at Bramhan Chindia. He funded all the expenses of the school single-handedly for few years till the grants were approved  by state government. At the same time he did the philanthropy job of helping the poor students to get higher education. Many of those students today turned out to be successful academicians, administrators, engineers and doctors. 

[a tribal painting of Orissa on the wall of Little Angels Public School, Barpali]

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E. KIRAN MOHAN(The writer)

Tahsil Chowk,

At/PO: BARPALI-768029

Dist. Bargarh, Odisha, India