Assam’s first hospital for women in Silchar

Shiva Sundari Narisikshasram hospital in Silchar
April 24: Assam’s first and only hospital for women, sprawled over six bighas of prime land in downtown Silchar, is turning over a new leaf.

Christened the Shiva Sundari Narisikshasram and Anti-Natal Clinic in 1934, the healthcare facility for women and children in this backward district is now well equipped, thanks to a handful of MPs and some charitable institutions.

The grants have come from the MP’s local area development fund of parliamentarians Arun Kumar Sarma, U.G. Brahma and Indramoni Borah.

Secretary of the hospital M. Syam, who is also a reputed doctor, said: “The cost of treatment is unbelievably cheaper compared to the present cost of hospitalisation.”

The initiative to serve the poor and the downtrodden came from its president Bimolangshu Roy, a Silchar-based lawyer and a former BJP legislator for two terms.

“I knew this old hospital had the potential to serve the poor in this neglected district and started mobilising necessary funds to turn this healthcare utility for women and children, the only one of its kind in Assam, into a modern one. It is now equipped with state-of-the-art gadgets that have so far remained out of bounds for the poor in this area,” Roy said.

As donations swelled, plans were drawn up for adding at least two multi-storey buildings and procuring the much-needed healthcare ancillaries to fulfil the wishes of its governing body to upgrade the hospital into a full-fledged entity.

Syam said within a short period a neonatal ICU, medicine, cardiology and paediatric outpatient departments, an immunisation programme under the guidelines of the World Health Organisation and a modern operation theatre with air-conditioning facility had been opened.

From a modest 12-bed hospital stagnating for many years in the pre-Independence era and even later, it is now a growing hospital with 60 beds in 38 cabins.

Not a speck of dust is to be found on the premises, thanks to the stringent cleanliness programme launched by the authorities. An incinerator has also been installed.

On an average, nearly 200 new patients throng this newly refurbished hospital, either for getting themselves admitted into or checked at the OPDs.

The hospital sprang to life in 1934 when a few social workers banded together to fulfil their dream of providing succour to deprived women by providing them with education, a source of livelihood and healthcare facilities.

The British administrators extended help. The Good Samaritans included former Assam governor Michael Keane, former director of the Delhi-based Maternity and Child Welfare Bureau, Ruth Young, and Cachar’s former civil surgeon Capt. R.A. Haythornwaite.

Local residents who contributed their mite included tea planters Bipul Chandra Gupta and Dinanath Das, lawyer and freedom fighter Arun Kumar Chanda and lawyer Hem Chandra Dutta. THE TELEGRAPH