Dr Aishwarya
 Three-year-old Aishwarya was affected by polio and lost all senses below her hip. She lives with her parents and one younger brother in Anna Nagar. Her parents had pinned high hopes on her as she was their first child. As she could not go to school because of her disability, her father decided to give her private tuition at home, engaging a teacher. But her mother was keen that her daughter should see the outer world and come into contact with children of her age. So she admitted her to a school. Aishwarya still remembers the sufferings of her beloved mother in trying to give her good education.
Her father was a good painter. Though he is no more, their house is filled with his beautiful paintings. She always remembers him with love and pride.
She wanted to repay them by getting good marks in all the classes. This disabled girl stood first in all subjects and brought pride to her loving parents. She decided to become a doctor and serve people who suffered. As soon as she completed her
school education successfully, she applied for a medical seat and succeeded in getting it.
As the day to join the course was nearing, she was a little scared about the reception she would get in the medical college. She felt for her physical disability and was very diffident to go to college. But contrary to her fears, all her
classmates and professors encouraged her to a great extent and helped her in all possible ways. She was happy that a handicapped, with 80 per cent disability, had got admission to the medical course. She made up her mind to do full justice and with all concentration studied well.
She was treated well and given responsibilities of organising cultural programmes, etc., in the college. It was a new experience for her as she had been concentrating all these years only on her studies. She was elected secretary of the Cultural Association of her college.
Aishwarya completed her medical course with flying colours. During the course of her study, she has visited many villages as part of her training. She found great pleasure in serving the poor and the needy who are in large numbers in Indian villages. She joined World Vision, one of the biggest service organisations at the international level, and offered her service to the downtrodden.
She went to Mumbai to serve the
AIDS affected people as an employee of World Vision. She remembered her plight as a
child affected by polio and decided to take up the cause of children. She became a child specialist and joined World Vision as an AIDS specialist and works day and night to serve the affected. The eunuchs are the most affected but they are not wanted and respected in society.
 Aishwarya realised the pathetic position of the
eunuchs and has been doing her best to create awareness among them about the seriousness of the deadly AIDS disease. Many have wrong ideas about AIDS and through her frequent visits and conversations with the eunuchs, she teaches them the facts. The eunuchs trusted her and took up her advice regarding AIDS and followed them sincerely.
Every year, the eunuchs used to conduct a contest among themselves. Aishwarya understood the feelings of the eunuchs and gave her wholehearted support to their grand show - Miss Eunuch contest at Villupuram - this year. They treated her as their godmother as she showed keen interest in their welfare. Utilising their services, Aishwarya went to the red light area in Mumbai and learnt about the pathetic life and condition of the women there. This was a great opportunity to get first-hand information about the sex workers.
After eunuchs and prostitutes, lorry drivers and cleaners are badly affected by AIDS. Aishwarya stayed at
Namakkal, which is worst affected by AIDS in Tamil Nadu, and took great pains to create awareness among the lorry drivers and cleaners. She was successful in her attempts at Namakkal. But the untimely death of her father resulted in changing her work spot to Chennai.
She is at present working in the TB hospital at
Chetpet in Chennai. It is also a good experience for her. Though tuberculosis is easily curable, the most affected ones belong to the poorer section of society.
Ill-health added with poverty dooms them. There is no proper hygiene in the slum areas and people suffer a lot. The slum areas are filled with sick people, prostitutes,
terrorists, drunkards, thieves and murderers. The slums are not easily approachable to other than the inmates. It is a separate world of anti social
elements who live mentally and physically an unhealthy life.
Dr Aishwarya wanted to go to that world and redeem the people. Though there was opposition to her in that area, slowly she won them over and gave them all possible medical help. She listed out the AIDS patients of the locality and started her treatment. The patients and others understood the care shown by Aishwarya and cooperated with her.
Another big task of Aishwarya was to redeem the young girls who were forced into prostitution in that area. It had also resulted in spreading AIDS. People were not very cooperative in the initial stages as it was a means of earning their livelihood. The young girls were ruined because of prostitution in the area.
Aishwarya was keen on educating the women about the harms of prostitution and how they could turn a new leaf if they realised their mistake. She wanted to train them in some other decent occupation. She taught them to take up self-employment by learning some art or craft. It was not easy for her to convince the women but she was successful to a certain extent at least.
Poverty is the root cause of all such evil things. No woman wants to be a sex worker. It is out of compulsion or poverty she is forced to enter the profession. Aishwarya did her best to improve the standard of the slum people.
She is keen on forming an organisation to uplift the disabled. She has seen the plight of the innumerable handicapped people left uncared-for not only by outsiders but by their own people. She feels that it is necessary to infuse confidence in them and think for and about themselves. Instead on lying in a corner of the house depressed and suppressed, they should come out with some aims in life. They should know that they are handicapped only physically, not mentally. They should get good education and employment and prove to the world that they could stand on their own legs even though their legs are disabled.
 She wants some basic facilities to be made in every office and building so that the handicapped could move with ease. Aishwarya has conceived many ideas to improve the condition of not only the disabled but also the common people. She talks about the need to save rainwater in every building; putting an end to drugs; redeeming the slum girls from prostitution; leading a healthy life; wiping the tears of the downtrodden; need for an AIDS-free world; getting loans for self-employment schemes for the disabled; the importance of government help for the handicapped; if there is any opposition for them from the government, she does not even mind starting an agitation.
Aishwarya visualises that an organisation for the disabled should be capable of achieving all these goals to empower them. They should not have inferiority complex at all for any reason. She turns back and sees the path she has tread. In spite of her disability, she could become a doctor. But she did not sit in an armchair and give treatment to her patients. She chose an area which would not have been chosen by anyone else.
She made up her mind to serve the downtrodden community and went to the slum areas and gave treatment to AIDS patients, prostitutes and the eunuchs. Her service with a disabled body to the lower section of the community is highly commendable.
Shanmugam can be contacted
@:
No: 54 Kamaraj Road,
Ramakrishna Nagar,
Alwar Thirunagar,
Chennai- 600 087.
Phone: 248 60 221
E-mail: shanmugam@azagi.com
(Extracted
from the book 'Hope is Life')
|
To live is to help
