Gadchiroli Aug. 12 (District Correspondent) Dr. Abhay Bang and Dr. Rani Bang, who has been working for the health of tribal and rural people in Gadchiroli district for the last 38 years have been honoured with the prestigious “Santokba Manav Seva Puraskar” for their humanitarian work
The award was presented in a grand program organized at Geo-Centre in Mumbai. Along with Bangs, this award was given to Mr. Cyrus Poonawala and Mr. Shiv Nader also.
The program was presided over by Mr. Govinddev Giri Maharaj. This award is sponsored by S.R. K. Knowledge Foundation and earlier it was given to the great personalities like Dalai Lama, Kailash Satyarthi, Ratan Tata, and Sonam Wangchuk.
The Bang couple established an organization called ‘SEARCH’ at a village Shodhgram in Gadchiroli and in the last 38 years have provided medical services to lakhs of patients. It has also done world recognized health research, Muktipatha- a district wide program to reduce alcohol and tobacco consuption, Nirman and Tarunyabhaan programs for youth.
The new method – door-to-door newborn child care invented by SEARCH to reduce infant mortality is the first in the world and is now being provided all over India through the ‘Asha’ scheme by the Government of India. Last year, 1.5 crore newborns in India were given health care in that manner. Dr. Abhay and Dr. Rani Bang has been honoured with Maharashtra Bhushan and Padma Shri awards in the past and has been honoured with nearly seventy awards so far. Time Magazine (USA) honoured him as a ‘Global Health Hero’ in 2005, while The Lancet honoured him as ‘The Pioneers in Rural Health Care’.
Dr. Bang, along with his two sons -Dr. Anand and Amrit, and daughter-in-law Dr. Aarti and entire family and around 150 colleagues are working with him at SEARCH and other projects.
Dr. Bang requested the S.R.K. Foundation to give the amount of this award to ‘Search’ organization It has been decided that the funds will be used for health work in Gadchiroli.
