We are a growing team..!
All the initial 5 health professionals who are initiating this work are medical and public health specialists and have worked in both government and non-profit health care scenarios for at least 5 years each. A senior physician with experience in an academic institution (AIIMS New Delhi) and then working in public health in rural Chhattisgarh for the last 21 years is also in the team. The team has two family medicine specialists, one internist/ public health practitioner and an anesthesiologist and pain specialist.
Sangwari has the potential to grow and attract a much larger set of health professionals with varied skills but all with a common values and mission mentioned earlier.
Shilpa Khanna studied in Delhi where she did her MBBS from Maulana Azad medical college and later her specialist training in Anaesthesiology from Post graduate Institute of medical science, Rohtak. She has worked as a senior resident for a period of more than two years at Govind Ballabh Pant hospital New Delhi. In rural India, where she has been working for 3 years that includes work at SEARCH Gadchiroli for a period of two years where she worked as a primary care provider, anaesthetist, pain specialist and a nurse trainer. She worked as a junior faculty Anaesthesia in JSS Bilaspur for 1 year.
Her area of interest are health care problems in rural India, pain and palliative care, anaesthesia in underserved areas and training of health care workers.
Chetanya Malik studied in Delhi and did his MBBS and specialised training in Internal Medicine from Maulana Azad medical college. He has worked as a senior resident in Lok Nayak hospital for a period of two years after which he moved to rural India where he has been working for a few years at SEARCH Gadchiroli. There he worked as a physician and an administrator for a small rural hospital. He then moved to JSS Bilaspur as a junior faculty for 1 year.
His areas of interest are health problems in the elderly and rural health.
Neha Kale was born and brought up in Mumbai. She completed her MBBS from VMGMC, Solapur, Maharashtra. She joined her post graduation in DNB Family Medicine at Jan Swasthya Sahyog (JSS) Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh. During her post graduation she was actively involved in clinical training for Nurses. She did her senior residency at JSS for 1 year. During this period, she was part of training Medical officers in Sickle cell disease. Later she joined as Medical officer at one of the Community health centre in rural Maharashtra for 1 year.
Her areas of interest are primary health care, community health care and research.
Dhiraj Deshmukh is from Vidarbha region of Maharashtra. He did his MBBS from VNGMC, Yavatmal and volunteered in Melghat tribal region during his undergraduate days. He completed his DNB in Family medicine and Post graduate diploma in Geriatrics (PGDGM) from Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (MGIMS) Sevagram. He worked as a senior resident (SR) at Jan Swasthya Sahyog (JSS) Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh, during which he was also part of training medical officers in non-communicable diseases. He has also worked as primary care physician at a Primary health centre in Gadchiroli, Maharashtra for 6 months and later at a Community health centre in rural Maharashtra for a year.
His primary areas of interest are primary and preventive health care.
Yogesh Jain has an MD in Paediatrics from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi where he also served as a faculty member for a few years, but is a public health physician in practice. He has been primarily involved in "primary health care'- through founding and running a community health programme - Jan Swasthya Sahyog (People's health Support group) in rural Bilaspur in central India with like- minded health professionals since 1999. People from over 2500 of the most marginalised villages that are home to the indigenous people access these services for their major health care needs. He has been involved in addressing the issues - be they technical, operational, economic or political that determine the health care for the rural poor through clinical care, careful documentation, observational research studies, developing appropriate health related technology, training, and lobbying, all based on the continual learning from this community health programme. Observing Health and illnesses through the lens of Hunger and extreme poverty, he has been a strident believer in the continued role of the state as the primary provider of social services and also that unbridled privatization is not the way forward in an unequal world in which we live.
Abhijit Gadewar is a primary care physician. He has done MBBS, M.Med. in Family Medicine, and M.Sc in Public Health for Development from LSHTM (UK). He has worked with several NGOs and state health department over last 10 years to address challenges faced by underserved communities in rural and Adivasi parts of central India. Additionally, he is a skilled trainer for community health workers, nurses, and primary care physicians and has experience of working in health system strengthening.
Ashwini Mahajan is a dedicated public health professional with a Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery (BAMS) and a master’s in public health in Social Epidemiology from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. With over eight years of experience, she has worked extensively in public health programs across rural and Adivasi regions of central India, collaborating with government agencies and various not-for-profit organizations. Ashwini has played a pivotal role in designing and developing community health programs, while supporting capacity building through training frontline healthcare workers. Her expertise lies in maternal and child health, as well as nutrition, where she has contributed through research, the implementation of government health initiatives, and active community engagement in remote areas of Kalahandi from Odisha, Gadchiroli from Maharashtra, and couple districts of Chhattisgarh.
Sunil is native of Mehkar town of Buldhana district, Maharashtra. He belong to nomadic tribe community. He is graduate of Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery and Masters in Public Health (MPH) with Gold Medal. He is a Public Health Practitioner with 10 years of experience of working with both government health care system and non-government organizations in different capacities in rural and Adivasi (indigenous) population in Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh.
His primary areas of interest areNon-communicable disease, research, data handling monitoring & evaluation, community level interventions and management.