Case Study

In the Indian state of Bihar, about 158,000 children under five die annually (over 400 deaths daily), in many cases from preventable health diseases like malaria, diarrhoea and measles simply because their mothers were unaware of proper sanitation habits. With nearly 60% of the population unable to read and only 48 doctors available for every 100,000 people, many mothers are unlikely to ever learn these habits.

In response to this high need for healthcare in the region, several grassroots clinics are helping these women. The problem, however, as pointed out by Pramod Sharma, Founder of Centre DIRECT, is that many of these clinics provide the same services without leveraging each others’ knowledge to improve the quality of their treatments. This gap led him to start his organisation which diffuses best practices for the health sector, focusing primarily on women and children.

Pramod’s motivation for Centre DIRECT stems from his views of democracy, the idea of empowering people to make decisions for themselves. By applying this philosophy in the health sector, his goal is to give people knowledge so that they can solve their own problems. He chose to focus on this sector because he believes that “without health, no one can read and no one can think—democracy is not possible”.

Centre DIRECT has helped over 330,000 people in the state of Bihar. Rather than run its own programs, it organises women into self-help groups to address their own health issues and provides them access to its knowledge centre. This decentralised model addresses different needs and creates accountability within each group to find its own solutions. He now hopes that these self-help groups will unite as small clusters and develop into larger community groups over time.

Bihar's Women and Children Enjoy a Better Quality of Life

Legatum gave Centre DIRECT a US$38,000 grant to give 10,000 children immunization shots, instruct 15,000 people in proper sanitation habits such as washing their hands after using the restroom facilities and form 300 self-help groups for women to start savings programmes and diffuse knowledge related to healthcare issues.

An accountant by training, Pramod comes from three generations of active supporters of justice. His strong views of democracy led him to start Centre DIRECT as a resource for others to leverage best practices in the health sector.