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Ramkrishna Dental Care &
Research Centre Pvt. Ltd. (RDCRC Pvt. Ltd.)
through the Ramakrishna Welfare Trust is
concentrating on its social responsibilities
through a number of activities.
Dr G R Ashok - a man dedicated to
the betterment of mankind, whose simple,
unassuming nature belies an uncommon zeal and
vigour - had an identifiable moment of
realisation in his life when he decided to spend
as much time as he could helping his fellow
human beings. This moment of realisation touched
his life when he came in contact with a group of
people - part of an organisation called MILT. In
1986, MILT Charitable Dental Clinic started at
Tollygunge and Dr. Ashok's first dream of not
having to extract teeth from mouths of people
who could not afford a meagre Rs.40 for a
filling was realised. Dr Ashok's association
with MILT led to the inception and growth of a
number of charitable social projects. The
paragraphs that follow provide a small testimony
to the life and work of Dr G R Ashok - a man in
the service of God.
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In the city, at the
state-of-the-art dental centre at 27/2H,
Bakultala Lane Kolkata 700042 which is the only
centre which charges for its services. |
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For the economically challenged
- at various Dental Clinics at:
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Dental clinic at 208/4, Rash
Behari Avenue, Kolkata 29. |
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MILT Charitable Dental Clinic at
13/2A, P N Mitra Lane, Tollygunge, Kolkata. |
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Deb Dental Laboratory at
Sachindra Pally, Garia, Kolkata |
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Dental Clinic & Laboratory
at Village Rajapur, P.O. Taldi, TALDI, 24 Pgs
(S) |
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Sitanath Polyclinic at Cinema
Road, Canning Town, 24 Pgs (S) |
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Lakshmi Dental Laboratory at
No.1. Dhigirpar, Canning Town, 24 Pgs (S) |
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Comprehensive Health Care Centre
at Village & Post Rangabelia, via Gosaba,
Sub division Canning 24 Pgs (South) Pin 743370 |
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With a fully equipped Air
Conditioned Mobile Dental clinic on a Tata 407
named "Ramakrishna Dental Ambulance"
with 2 dental chairs , the following areas are
reached where electricity and water availability
is a challenge:-
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In and around Amoragori Village
in Amta Block, Howrah District |
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In village "Satmukhi"
beyond Canning & village Taldi of Canning
Block I & II |
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In different areas in the city
where poor children are being looked after by
various NGO's. |
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School Dental Health Programmes
are conducted in Kolkata city schools. Check-
ups, awareness programmes, prevention lectures
& exhibitions are conducted regularly in
schools run by IIMC, Sonarpur, schools in
Canning, schools in Gosaba Block & Basanti
Block of Sunderbans, and schools in and around
Amoragori, Howrah. |
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Ramakrishna Welfare Trust
provides education facilities for the students
of the weaker section of society in:
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Amoragori Village by organising
a coaching center for children of classes I to
IV |
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“Snehalaya" - a house for
destitute children in Salt Lake, run by MILT
FOUNDATION |
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“MILT Residential
School" - for destitute children in
Simultala, Bihar, run by MILT FOUNDATION |
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Computer education at Amoragori
Village. |
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Providing scholarships (full
tuition fees and hostel fees of students of high
schools and colleges) |
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Simultala
Simultala, in Bihar is a place
of healing - known for its springs. It is a
place where wishes come true, they say. Named
after the Simul tree, whatever its more esoteric
properties may be, it certainly is a quiet,
serene, picturesque location.
Simultala personifies one of Dr
Ashok's main areas of social service - working
with orphan and destitute children.
The MILT Residential School is a
testimony to the work MILT and Dr Ashok are
doing among the needy people of the eastern
states of India. All boys from the 7 Snehalayas
named above after passing class five graduate to
this school and study here till class 10.
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Snehalaya
In 1988, MILT started Snehalaya
(a home of affection) for orphan and destitute
children, picking them up and caring for them.
Today seven Snehalayas are in operation in four
Metros of India - Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore
and Mumbai. These homes have the latest
amenities and the children are brought up with
care, love and sense of pride to grow up with
confidence necessary to bring the best out of
them.
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Amoragori
Dr. Ashok's service activities
extend beyond his association with MILT. This
started with Dental camps from 1980. His idea
was that every dentist should spend at least 10%
of his time and money serving poor patients and
practice some amount of free community dentistry
to bring about prevention not leaving the whole
responsibility on the Govt. This zeal took Dr.
Ashok to different villages of West Bengal from
1980 to 1985 when finally he picked up two areas
to work consistently to bring about prevention.
One was Taldi-Canning area from 1982 and
Amoragori (Howrah-Amta area) from 1985.
Initially it was 3-4 times a year but from 1994
it has been once every month in Amoragori. In
Taldi-Canning and Rangabelia area, the focus is
on Dentistry alone where conservation of teeth
is topmost priority whereas in Amoragori what
started as dentistry is today encompassing the
whole village development as a means to perhaps
make it an ideal village. Developmental
programmes are taken up on a regular
basis.
The Dental camps held in
Amragori from 1985 to 2003 provided only
consultation and advice, extractions, temporary
fillings and lectures in prevention. But from
15th February, 2003 - a red letter day in Dr.
Ashok's life - the first fully equipped AC
Dental Mobile Clinic of Eastern India was
inaugurated at Raj Bhavan by the then Hon.
Governor His Excellency Sri Viren H Shah. Dental
camps include conservative procedures in
addition which help save teeth, specially of
youngsters.
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Village Upliftment: The
company through the Trust has, on a moral note,
adopted a village called "Amoragori"
beyond Amta in Howrah District where the
following programmes are being conducted
regularly more frequently since the last 10
years and less frequently since the last 20
years.
We have miles to go to make this
an "ideal village" with programmes in
self-employment, road building, character
building and building professionals, which are
not even touched till date. Most of the
programmes in Amoragori are conducted in
collaboration with social service organisations
like: Rotary Club of Calcutta Metropolitan East,
MILT, GOAL, Mysore Association Building Trust,
Round Tables No 41& Ladies Circle No 65,
Inner Wheel Club etc & philanthropic
individuals like Smt Sudha Narain as well as a
lot of doctors from different streams etc.
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Health programmes
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Eye clinic & eye operation
camps |
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Dental clinic & awareness
camps |
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Multi-medical camps &
prevention programmes |
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Computer education at Amoragori
Village. |
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Mother & child health
programmes |
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Nutrition & hygiene
programmes |
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Agriculture upliftment
programmes |
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Women upliftment programmes |
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Drinking water facility by
sinking tube wells |
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Formal & informal computer
education programmes |
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Planting trees to maintain
ecological balance. |
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Rangabelia
The village of Rangabelia,
situated in the heart of the Sunderbans, is home
to the great Royal Bengal Tiger.
A village only accessible by
waterways, the inhabitants of Rangabelia are
mostly engaged in subsistence cultivation of the
land, poultry farming, fishing, and pisciculture.
Villagers greet Dr Ashok like an
old friend. The trust he evokes from these
simple people is truly heartfelt. At the
hospital in Rangabelia, patients are varied -
mute testimony to the hard conditions that they
have leaned to live each day with. Thanks to the
hard work of people like Dr Ashok and his
associates, there is surely new hope here. There
is also certainly plenty to be done. After
morning consultancy, Dr Ashok visits Rangabelia
High School and educates the children about
dental care and hygiene.
At Rangabelia, there are also
interactive sessions between the assistants with
various Women's Groups engaging them in
small-scale and cottage industries. For Dr Ashok,
the returning visits to Rangabelia never end.
And for the villagers of Rangabelia, hope
remains. |
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