Applying skills to serve all

Some people keep using their skills to serve the population. One such person is Khushboo Taori. Her story as told to Jamuna Rangachari

I studied in Agragami School and JB science college Wardha , a land at the heart of freedom struggle. Was inspired by the freedom fighters since a young age and wanted to do something for the country. I decided at a very young age that wont be spending my life in earning as I have something to give back to this society. (was lucky enough to have supportive parents for the same)

I have done my MBBS from Nagpur and MD from Nair. I was always interested in social work and have been associated with Sevankur, an initiative by Avinash Saoji sir, during my college years. I have also visited Anandvan, Satav Sir in Melghat for camps, and SEARCH in Gadchiroli. This greatly helped me understand the kind of work you can do in various fields. I did many activities when in college as  crowd funding for patients, eye donation, collecting old stuff and donating them to propoer organizations, visit to old age homes, children shelter homes, palliative care center etc while in Nagpur Indira Gandhi govt medical college. (I was hell bound only to study in govt as didn’t want to waste money instudies as didn’t plan to earn)

I decided to work in government sector with the belief that dedicated people can make substantial social difference with government resources and set-up. After accidentally landing up a job in Thane municipal corporation as medical officer, I continued as could see the impact that I could make in the lives of needy urban patients and also as there was a system in place, could do multiple things with its help. Before I used to go alone everywhere. N now had a full team with me. Worked a lot in the deaddiction space I was interested in

I was soon elevated to the role of city TB officer and then I was In-charge of COVID management in Thane during pandemic. I took several initiatives for betterment of patients, managed to get some grants, installed advanced machines, implemented process for automation, handled vaccination drives and much more. It has been quite a satisfactory experience.

While I have been able to contribute to society through my professional responsibilities but, I realised a stagnation setting in and found it unsatisfactory in past 1.5years.  So I decided to take a break and again go back to some really good social organizations some 6 months back. I met fantastic ppl in  Lift for Upliftment in Pune , Muktangan,  Sewagram Medical College PSM department ,Vidhyathi sahayak samiti in Hinganghat, Anandwan Warora and Atul Prajakta from Nagpur , Sudeep Sir from Swasth foundation, toy bank ppl, SNEHA NGO ,Ummed foundation in Mumbra etc.  Also took a  Solid waste management training (was very interested)  at AAETI Rajasthan was very good too. Learned a lot. This all was very good and inspiring. Great to see people working so dedicatedly.

Being in Thane and more so in corporation then, I was always coming up with ways as how such things may be started in Thane. But then though rather than waiting for the time to be right lets start the work from outside.

TMC has been a very fulfilling journey. I have learned so much and got a lot of love respect and recognition from the TMC. Apart from giving me a rich administrative experience and it has helped me to a great extent in my pursuit to give back to the society. The govt job was passion for me as I wanted to prove that with dedicated efforts u can use the system effectively and bring about a substantial positive change. I want to create a bigger impact and wasn't possible in the role I was currently in. Also thought the work will always be dependent on multiple factors as who is my boss etc.

I will now like to embark on a new journey in the social sector full time. Not planning to start pvt practise or set up my own NGO. 

Have a NGO linking project in mind which I will be starting from Thane so that the good work done by so many common ppl can be brought to public notice and scaled up. 

Also will be actually working in the  Solid waste management field as we own it to mother Nature and are bound to protect her in whatever ways possible.

By Jamuna Rangachari