Dr. Sanjana Brahmawar Mohan and Dr. Pavitra Mohan started their careers with stable positions at a government medical college in Udaipur, as paediatricians. However, they felt a profound restlessness regarding the health of marginalized communities. This drive led them to found Basic Healthcare Services (BHS), a not-for-profit organization dedicated to delivering high-quality, low-cost primary care to the most remote and underserved areas of rural Rajasthan.
Transition from traditional roles
In order to be able to deliver the best value to the communities they planned to serve, even before founding BHS in 2012, both doctors pursued advanced studies—Dr. Pavitra Mohan in public health and Dr. Sanjana in epidemiology.
Their diverse experiences, including Dr. Pavitra’s work with UNICEF and Dr. Sanjana’s research in nutrition, revealed that national health missions were still failing to reach the “last mile” communities. They realized that reaching these disconnected populations required more than just medical expertise; it required overcoming infrastructural constraints and bridging social distances.
Innovative care model
The doctors developed a unique “bottom-up” model for their Amrit Clinics. Key features of their approach include
- Nurse-led care: Placing nurses at the centre of curative care, supported by doctors when needed, as nurses often share stronger social connections with the communities they serve.
- Hyper-local accessibility: Setting up clinics close to where people live to account for the limited mobility of women and elderly residents in areas where many men migrate for work.
- Comprehensive services: Delivering care across the entire life cycle, including maternal and child health, treatment for infections like malaria and tuberculosis, and management of chronic conditions such as diabetes and hypertension. They even treated most cases of severe malnutrition locally.
Community-rooted success
A central tenet of their work is building trust through long-term interaction and dialogue. They established community advisory groups, which allow residents to oversee clinics, promote health education, and hold the health system accountable. Beyond clinical care, they addressed the root causes of health issues, such as launching daycare centres (Phulwaris) to provide essential care for children aged six months to five years—a critical window for preventing malnutrition that traditional systems often miss. Through their persistence, Dr. Sanjana and Dr. Pavitra have demonstrated that effective primary healthcare a collaborative effort rooted in community dignity.
We are sharing the interview with Dr. Sanjana and Dr. Pavitra.