Reviving The Culture Of Bharat: New Rural Medical College In Karnataka To Provide Free Education And Healthcare

According to contemporary spiritual leader and humanitarian Sadguru Sri Madhusudan Sai, in ancient Bharat, food, health and education were never sold.

When Bharathiyas set out on cross country pilgrimages in ancient times, they never had to worry about which ‘hotel’ they would get their next meal at — since ‘Athithi Devo Bhava’, ie, ‘the unexpected guest is god’, was the norm.

They could knock at any door at meal time and be assured of a warm welcome and a share of the food for the day.

Healthcare too was provided free of cost to all.

Temples had ‘vaidyas’ (doctors) and even mid-wives attached to them, who were patronised by the rulers or elite.

Though the wealthy would often reward the vaidyas handsomely for services rendered, fee for service was an unknown concept.

All sections of society could access free healthcare.

Likewise, education was free for all; and all children were treated alike.

Krishna, the heir to the throne of Mathura and Kuchela, a poor student at Sandipani’s gurukulam ate the same roasted grams and grazed the cows of the guru.

The parents of students offered a ‘dakshina’ according to whatever they could afford, at the end of studies.

In Sadguru Madhusudan Sai’s words, the day food, healthcare and education were commoditised and sold, the decline of Bharat began.

All faith master, Sri Sri Sathya Sai Baba began a revolutionary revival of these traditions, when he set up free tertiary care hospitals sans billing sections, gave free of cost, values-based education to all through his schools and colleges, and conducted massive free food and clothing distribution drives through his devotees.

These projects run to this day, challenging economists and management gurus who questioned the sustainability of such ‘quixotic, free, ventures’.

Of course, there is no such thing as a free meal; somebody has to pick up the tab. But as Baba used to say, selfless service with love is so powerful an intention, that the universe itself conspires to make it happen.

Help comes even unasked from all quarters — kind hearted individuals, civil society and institutions to keep these ventures going.

Madhusudan Naidu, an alumnus of Baba’s university, was barely 30 when Baba exited the physical; and after Baba’s time, has taken Baba’s experiments in reviving these traditions of Bharat to a new high.

On the healthcare front, mystic experiences guided him after Baba’s exit from the physical to start totally free of cost tertiary and primary healthcare facilities.

With the help of a senior alumnus of Baba’s university, C Sreenivas, tertiary care paediatric heartcare hospitals to combat congenital heart disease, the commonest birth defect, were set up, beginning with the Sri Sathya Sai Sanjeevani Hospital in Raipur, in the heartland of rural India.

Today, the Sanjeevani chain has footprints from Fiji in the South Pacific and Sri Lanka, through five such centres in India, all the way to Clarksdale in Mississippi, the poorest state of the US, where a Sanjeevani hospital is on the cards.

These hospitals have literally given a gift of life to over 25,000 little ones through heart surgeries or non-invasive procedures; and in India alone over 400,000 plus out-patients have been treated — all totally free of cost.

On the primary care front, taking the challenge of malnutrition by the horns, guided by Baba from the beyond through Madhusudan, a bunch of Bengaluru-based techies started a novel ‘breakfast seva’ programme for government school kids who go to school mainly for the free mid-day meal.

This has mushroomed into a mammoth nourishing-the-nation-through-nutrition Annapoorna programme which serves a fresh, tasty, nutritious meal complete with a supplement drink, ‘SaiSure’, to 1.2 million hungry government school kids across 27 states and three Union Territories, every day.

Nutritional care complementing ante-natal care was also rolled out for expectant mothers through the Divine Mother and Child Healthcare Programme launched in 2017.

Research shows that these steps have yielded significant positive results — women post better haemoglobin levels while children post better health indices; and to the great delight of their teachers, children not only show up at school, but do well academically.

Annapoorna has also provided access to drinking water through RO plants to over 500,000 villagers.

On the secondary care front, multi-speciality hospitals were started; in the rural hamlet of Sathya Sai Grama, near Bengaluru, the head-quarters of the mission, and in two villages in Nigeria, where liberal Christian priest, late Father Charles Ogada, was rendering yeoman service to the needy.

Sri Madhusudan, whose USPs were total selflessness and fearlessness, was anointed a sadguru (self-realised master) in his own right, by Baba from the beyond, through a series of mystical events around Guru Poornima, 2019.

Soon after came the COVID-19 pandemic; and that catapulted the healthcare mission into a faster gear. The goal was to revolutionise healthcare delivery; to bridge the rich-poor, urban-rural divide.

In a major expansion of secondary healthcare facilities, Sanjeevani Mamatwa Maternity Hospitals have been launched from 2022, to stem the unacceptable maternal and infant mortality rates in rural India by promoting institutional deliveries.

The first was established in the tribal Bastar region; and by 2047 the aim is to cover every district of the nation.

To complete the web of healthcare delivery, the thrust in 2023, has been to launch Sai Swasthya wellness centres at the taluk level, offering primary care consultations, simple diagnostic facilities and medicines.

Specialist care through telemedicine has also begun. Beginning with Karnataka, 6,000 plus such centres to cover all of rural India are envisaged.

All facilities as always, are set up following the triple-S model of cooperation between sarkara (government), samaja (civil society) and sanstha (institution); a ‘triple engine’ model, to put it in contemporary terms; and all services are rendered totally free of cost to the beneficiaries.

Such a massive healthcare project needs a competent and compassionate healthcare force; and that led Sadguru Sri Madhusudan Sai to venture into Medical Education.

Two international conferences on the future of medical education (ICFME-2021 and 2022) under the aegis of the then five-year-old Sri Sathya Sai University for Human Excellence with inputs from Stanford University, set the tone for it.

The conferences highlighted the acute need to create competent, compassionate doctors committed to serving the rural unserved; as well as brought out the less known fact, that Bharat had always been home to free of cost medical education.

Beginning with the Thoranamalai Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, set up by Agastya, the all-time great sage-physician, five thousand years ago, in the Buddhist Medical Schools, and through Takshashila and Nalanda, two millennia ago, Bharat has had a tradition of providing free of cost medical education.

Determined to revive that tradition, Sadguru Sri Madhusudan Sai embarked on a bold mission of launching the first rural private medical college in contemporary times, to provide MBBS and PG education besides nursing and para-medical courses, totally free of cost to students.

With the support of followers all over the globe, high net-worth individuals, CSR funds and so on, the already existing multi-speciality hospital in Sathya Sai Grama was further expanded and a state-of-the-art academic block and pre-clinical wing were added.

Beating all nay-sayers, an inspired, dedicated faculty also fell in place; and NMC has given approval for the MBBS programme to begin this academic year, with 100 students.

Student selection is to be through the NEET examination. But this residential, private medical college, in the rural, by the rural, for the rural, will give preference to rural students who wish to serve in rural areas.

Gratitude for receiving world-class, totally free of cost residential education that makes them doctors, an inspiring role-model faculty and guaranteed employment at the mission’s own idealistic, rapidly expanding rural healthcare mission will be the drivers of a new generation of enlightened, compassionate and competent medical professionals.

The students have to agree to serve in rural areas for as many years as they receive free of cost medical education; else they have to pay back all expenses accrued. August 2023 will see a hundred would-be doctors fired up by idealism, walk into this unique medical college.

This unique medical college, the Sri Madhusudan Sai Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, as named by committed followers, was inaugurated by none other than Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on 25 March  2023. The Prime Minister, who was accompanied by the Chief Minister of Karnataka, Basavaraj Bommai and Health Minister, Dr K Sudhakar, heartily welcomed this bold move to help rural students become doctors; for it is such visionary institutions and leaders who can help the nation’s Amrit Kaal become a reality.

The Chief Minister stated that this medical college providing totally free of cost medical education was one more amazing service project by Sadguru in the state.

Sadguru Sri Madhusudan Sai humbly declared that the establishment of such a model medical college, was an expression of the ‘prayas’ (sincere effort), of kind hearted citizens from all over the globe, who had come together in the true spirit of ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ (one world, one family) for the revival of the culture of Bharat; the culture of giving food, healthcare and education, free of all costs, to all.

dr.hiramalini.seshadri@gmail.com