"I will give you a talisman. Whenever you are in doubt, or when the self becomes too much with you, apply the following test. Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man [woman] whom you may have seen, and ask yourself, if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him [her]"

- M. K. Gandhi

The Trust for Reaching the Unreached (TRU) is an effort to reach the most marginalized rural and tribal communities through comprehensive health and education programmes. TRU works in villages of Panchmahals and Vadodara districts of Gujarat state in India. Here, we continue to contribute our bit to improvement of health status of people with specific focus on women's health issues in the area. Along with health, we pay attention towards education of the rural tribal children, especially girls.

TRU’s perspectives for health care provision:

TRU believes and has also experienced that Health is a function of socio-economic circumstances including the environmental factors.  TRU serves the poor rural and tribal peoples of Panch Mahals district through a multi dimensional approach to development with health and education as major intervention areas.

It is seen that visible and felt needs of the poor people is to get services in physical / health emergencies. The Gujarat govt is trying to reach some services to the poor people by various arrangements. At best it has become the priority of our welfare state because it is the most tangible achievement which can be seen and felt.  Secondly, the poor rural and tribal people are many and they are an important vote bank for our politically conscious group of leaders who lead the state.  So several theories and national programs are established these days to help the state government to achieve better healthcare aiming at low infant mortality ratio, low maternal death rate, immunization coverage, control of communicable diseases like TB, Leprosy, HIV – AIDS, provision of primary, secondary and tertiary health care.

Approach of the govt is to provide hardcore services through public private partnership by entering into contract with private medical practitioners.  Therefore the insistence on institutional deliveries, hooking up some private nursing homes and surgical homes to provide emergency treatment, leasing out the administration of Primary Health Centers (PHCs) and Community Health Centers (CHCs) to private sector including some NGOs, etc have come to forefront.  This essentially exposes the rural – tribal poor (below poverty line) people to the private / market forces and hence various expressed and subtle exploitations. More than everything the people have lost faith in the govt services, which are supposed to be rightful and can be demanded democratically.  TRU functions in such a backdrop to awaken the people about their human rights in health and education and also to provide services wherever possible and within purview, thereby creating replicable models for implementation by GOs and NGOs.

TRU’s interventions: