Corporate NGO for the Poor

Killing fields. Globally, the term evokes images of the horrors of a war-ravaged Cambodia during the US evacuation from Vietnam, in the Oscar-winning movie by the same name. But, back home in India, killing fields are increasingly becoming the reality of peaceful, remote and silent rural and semi-urban topographies, afflicted by poverty and disease.

It is the silent sufferers behind the poverty line in these areas which caught the attention of a group of highly successful entrepreneurs from the fields of information technology and medicare, intent on bridging the divide.

The result: Healing Fields Foundation set up by Nimish Parekh of Sedgwick Parekh Health Management, a leading health management services firm in Mumbai, Intelligroup Asia COO MDS Bosco, his wife Mukti K Bosco, an occupational therapist, Arjun Valluri, CEO of Intelligroup Inc, and a few others. The "not for profit" foundation, established about an year ago and registered last October, decided not to plunge into the grassroots directly like the innumerable NGOs already functioning. Instead, it decided to bring together on a single platform technical and management skills of corporates, highly skilled individuals and academic institutions, and the expertise of NGOs. More like a link to create more efficient and self sufficient voluntary organisations involved in working for the poor and the underprivileged.

"Indians were doing so well in IT and other fields, but more than 70 per cent live in poverty, in the rural areas, which are literally killing fields, with people dying of viral fevers, typhoids, TB, even childbirth and pregnancies," says Mukti, secretary of the organisation.

Even we are from middle class backgrounds who have come up and achieved a certain level of success in life, and thought of giving back to society. We decided to use the skills of the 30 per cent who are successful to change the lives of the rest 70 per cent that are underprivileged, she says.

And Healing Fields, chosen from a list of names Parekh had already registered, they decided to reverse the killing fields, and adopted the cause of healthcare.

The organisation is aiming at reaching affordable healthcare to the poor by supporting individuals and public and private organisations, involved in the development of the sector, and partnering with insurance companies, community and charitable hospitals, the government etc.

The voluntary agency has undertaken some pilot projects for creation of long-term sustainable model for healthcare management and delivery in India, and intends later upscale those models, according to Mukti. To begin with, the organisation got involved with the Republic Day Gujarat earthquake relief. Intelligroup had collected some funds, but weren't sure of whom to give it to. It was then the organisation stepped in and networked with Christian Medical Association of India in Delhi, channelised the funds through them.

Healing Fields is already assisting charitable and mission hospitals serving the needy to become self sustainable by introducing such income generating schemes, so that they don't depend on external funds.

Recently, with the backing of the seed funding fromits corporate members -- Sedgwick Parekh Health Management and Intelligroup Asia, and in partnership with its NGO members such as AP Dalit Bahujan Cooperative Federation, and the Confederation of Voluntary Agencies (CoVA), it has launched an ambitious pilot project.

The project involves a health insurance package model tailored to suit the needs of the poor. "The existent policies have a lot of exclusions and don't reach the needy. So we will be using the concept of third party administrators (TPAs) in NGOs to act as a bridge between the insurance companies, the health service providers which are hospitals and nursing homes, and the community," she says.

Work has already begun on the NGO TPA pilot project in Kurnool district. Surveys are being conducted to find out the priority areas of healthcare that need to be insured. The ASP wing of the AP Dalit Bahujan Cooperative Society has been roped in for the project, as have been NIC, and various hospitals and NGOs.

"The poor want insurance not for heart attacks, because they don't live to see the day at the end of it. They want cover for diseases like TB, or childbirths and maternity, and typhoid, that constantly affects them. Most insurance models are reimbursement models, which are further a problem for the poor. We need to rope in such facts into the model.

The pilot project involves designing a model insurance policy and approaching insurance companies with the same urging them to come out with a resembling package, will be ready by mid September, says the secretary.

The project, currently being carried out in Kurnool, covering 500 selfhelp group members their families, will be later scaled up for replication across India. "Yes, it's quite ambitious, but we want to grow," says Mukti.

The organisation has already begun training of the staff of NGOs and hospitals on conducting surveys and collection and collating relevant data, and pre-policy training to introduce them to the insurance policies. The project, costing Rs 50 lakhs to a crore, will be ready mid September, she adds.

Right now, the team is keen on focussing on curative aspects. It's planning to set up health cooperatives for communities and community hospitals that will introduce health management and health insurance based programmes. The organisation, which also holds workshops and seminars for NGOs on the changing healthcare scenario and empowerment of communities to take care of preventive care in rural and semiurban segments, hopes it's incubatory program is a success.

"We are hoping the government is helpful. There is already a vast divide and government should modify and bring policies that can include the people on the other side of the divide," she adds.