The Wockhardt Foundation has been working across healthcare and other areas of social development with a focus on creating healthier and more self-reliant communities. Could you tell us about the Foundation’s work on the ground today and the key healthcare and social development priorities shaping its programmes?
Wockhardt Foundation was formed in 2008, so it has been nearly 18 years. Our flagship programme is called Mobile 1000. We run 210 mobile clinics across India in 21 states, providing healthcare to poor and underserved communities.
Since 2008, we have provided free primary healthcare to more than 50 million people. Each van is equipped with a doctor, driver and pharmacist. They go to villages and provide healthcare to people who need it.
The programme covers awareness, diagnosis, treatment and referral. We have around 800 employees in Wockhardt Foundation, whom we call our “warriors”. The term reflects their fighting spirit and commitment to helping poor communities. The programme operates across more than 5,000 villages every week.
Over the years, the role of CSR has evolved from supporting individual initiatives to addressing more systemic challenges. How do you see CSR’s role changing within India’s healthcare ecosystem, particularly in areas where public healthcare infrastructure continues to face gaps?
CSR is very important because every drop makes an ocean. We cannot rely only on the government to do everything. The government has an important role to play in public healthcare. However, CSR can supplement and complement government programmes.
There are many areas where CSR in healthcare is doing a wonderful job.
Could you give us some examples of the areas where companies are increasingly focusing their CSR efforts in healthcare?
Some organisations are operating ambulances and mobile clinics. Some are distributing sanitary pads, while others are working on malnutrition or operating fixed healthcare centres. Some are also donating equipment to government hospitals.
Healthcare interventions in underserved communities often struggle with continuity and sustained engagement. What have you learned about building programmes that go beyond delivering a service and actually create lasting change within communities?
The programme has to be designed in such a way that it addresses the needs of the community. It then has to be implemented in a way that provides a solution. It has to be implemented properly. Excellence should be the benchmark of implementation.
The Foundation takes an integrated approach covering healthcare, sanitation, nutrition, education and livelihoods. How important is it to address these interconnected factors when the objective is to improve health outcomes at the community level?
A mobile van does quite a lot of this. It addresses some aspects of women’s and child health. It focuses on prevention and diagnosis, creates awareness, provides treatment through medicines, and also refers cases that cannot be treated in the mobile van to community health centres and higher-level hospitals.
Maternal and child nutrition is an important factor in improving health outcomes. What is the Foundation doing in this area?
In maternal and child care, we provide anaemia and iron tablets and test for anaemia. For children, we address malnutrition and provide nutrition sachets to children suffering from malnutrition.
Preventive healthcare remains one of the biggest gaps in India, particularly in underserved regions. What needs to change in the way preventive healthcare and health awareness are delivered at the community level? Where do you see the key gaps and what is the solution?
Preventive healthcare requires good awareness. Through awareness, you can prevent. The first step of preventive healthcare is to create awareness and then take the steps of prevention that are required.
Technology is increasingly being used to extend healthcare access and improve outreach. Where do you see technology making a meaningful difference in community healthcare, and what are the limitations that organisations need to recognise?
Technology is very important and it helps in monitoring many things. It gives live reporting.
For example, technology has evolved a lot for diabetes patients. They can have a sensor on their arm and get their readings live without having to prick themselves every time.
Technology has entered all areas of healthcare. For example, robotic systems are being used for knee surgery in patients with arthritis. Robots can perform surgery with greater accuracy than a human surgeon.
Technology has evolved and is continuously evolving. There are also exosomes, which are growth factors, and these are being used for applications involving the liver, lungs and knees, as well as for aesthetic purposes.
When your teams are working at the ground level, what kind of difficulties do they face while engaging with communities?
Ground-level workers have to have a very good fighting spirit to do this work. They do face difficulties, but they fight through them.
They face difficulties related to their physical working conditions, including the weather. They can also encounter patients who are difficult to deal with. Another challenge is mobilising patients when they go to a village. At times, the village sarpanch and others can create problems. These are the types of difficulties that are faced.
When you look at the Foundation’s long-term work, how do you define meaningful impact, particularly when the objective is to create healthier, more empowered and self-reliant communities, rather than simply measure the number of beneficiaries reached?
Beneficiary reach is one of the ways of measuring how much impact you have created. That is very important.