COMMUNITY LED INITIATIVES FOR CHILD SURVIVAL

Safeguarding the Community’s Health:

The Village CLICS doot

properly. I visit the family regularly as neglect is

a problem,” she explains

Intensive training is provided to the CLICS doot

to prepare her for her job. Aside from learning
about health issues, she also has to learn how to
maintain village and household level records.
Monthly refresher courses keep her on her toes,
and a CLICS doot is even tested after each
course!
CLICS doot Archana participates in the weekly BSD

She is the only trained person available in the

Her eyes reflect her sadness even though she has
community around the clock to help people with
a smile on her face. “The village is my family,”
their health problems. There is roughly one doot
declares Archana Selokar. Ever since her
for one thousand people in an area and her job is
husband died of kidney failure some years ago,
to go from house to house advocating ANC,
she has had to manage more than her fair load of
PNC, immunization and educating new mothers
responsibility. But her kind and compassionate
on how to care for their new-born babies. A
nature has won her an enviable position in the
CLICS doot is also equipped to provide first-aid
community. Her natural flair for helping people
for minor ailments and sell medicines bought at a
has enabled her to become the community health
price less than the MRP. She supports the ANM
worker or CLICS doot in the village of Selu Kate
and anganwadi worker during the BSD and
in Wardha
participates in the weekly Kiran clinic. She also
attends the meetings of the VCC, SHG and
This doot divides her time between tending her
Kishori Panchayat. She is accountable to the
Soyabean crop and dealing with the health issues
VCC and her monthly salary is released only
of the women and children in the village. She has
after she has justified how her time has been
saved two lives in the past six months. One was
spent during the monthly meeting.
that of a pregnant woman who needed
emergency obstetric care and lacked the money
It is not easy to become a CLICS doot. To
for this. “I gave her husband 300 rupees of my
qualify for the post, candidates have to undergo a
savings,” she says. Her timely intervention for a
rigorous three day examination process. This
malnourished child with pneumonia was also his
includes tests in writing, mathematics and
saving grace. “This 5 year old child’s mother has
general knowledge. Personality skills as well as
mental problems and cannot care for the child
ability to communicate effectively and create a
rapport with people are crucial to the job. Role
plays, teaching and extempore speaking are other
aspects of the exam a candidate must handle with
confidence. A doot must be above 30 years of
th
age and a 7 class graduate.
when she recalls the initial reactions of the
community to her job. “Other farmers would ask
me what I earned and when I told them that it
was 300 rupees a month, they asked her me why
I did it? I told them to wait and see - that they
would be the ones reaping the benefits of my
work,” she says, a smile of satisfaction lighting
up her face.

Contact us
Community Led Initiatives for Child Survival
(CLICS)

Sangeeta won the doot contest!

Dr. Sushila Nayar School of Public Health
Incorporating Department of Community Medicine
Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences
In the village of Babhulgaon, Sangeeta Amte
Sewagram - 442 102 Wardha District
qualified for the job after competing with 10 Maharashtra (India)
women for the post.” I really wanted to be a doot
E-mail: bsgarg_ngp@bsnl.in
as I love learning and teaching people, and want
to improve the health and living conditions of
Our Website
my community,” she says. Today she is the http://clics.org.in
person teenage girls seek for advice when they
have health problems. They ask her questions
they can’t ask their mothers and she often
accompanies them to the clinic when they need
treatment.
MGIMS Aga Khan Foundation

Sangeeta is trusted by people within the Development Partner

community because she administers only

primary treatment and refers them to the sub-
centre clinic if anything further is required. “The
other day a man with a cut came to me. I cleaned
it and dressed it and told him to get an anti-
tetanus injection as soon as possible.” She laughs