Bridging gaps, saving lives: AAF's rural healthcare revolution

While India has made tremendous strides in medicine and technology, a significant segment of our population, particularly in rural areas, still faces challenges accessing adequate healthcare. This disparity not only widens the socioeconomic divide but also contributes to various issues such as high maternal and infant mortality rates, malnutrition, reduced life expectancy and low vaccination rates. Recognising the urgent need to provide holistic services directly to the communities, the Anil Agarwal Foundation (AAF), the social impact arm of Vedanta, has prioritised efforts to strengthen the rural healthcare system through various programmes.

Revolutionising rural healthcare, one village at a time

The flagship project Nand Ghar is ensuring an integrated healthcare model with access to crucial services at the doorstep. Regular OPDs, basic non-invasive tests, and free medication are available to those in need through regular health camps and collaboration with the government services. ‘Aarogya’, a comprehensive health initiative by Vedanta’s Business Unit BALCO, provides quality primary healthcare services through Rural Health Posts (RHPs) in three remote villages, Chuiya, Parsabhata and Chotia, in Chhattisgarh. In 2022-23 alone, these centres provided OPD services to over 3,600 people. BALCO strategically targeted 25 haat bazaars—local markets that draw people from hundreds of neighbouring villages, making them ideal locations for running health camps and counselling sessions.
Similar healthcare interventions by other business units such as Hindustan Zinc, Vedanta Aluminium, ESL Steel Limited and Sesa Goa are successfully addressing the dual problems of healthcare; accessibility and affordability in the remote districts of the states such as Rajasthan, Odisha, Jharkhand, and Goa. For instance, in Lanjigarh of Kalahandi district, Odisha, the 20-bed state-of-the-art Vedanta Hospital offers preventive and curative healthcare to communities in a 60 km radius. This is a boon considering the villages are located in a hilly and forested region. And for those who cannot travel to the hospital, there is the mobile health unit that takes medical facilities to the communities.
Mobile Health Vans (MHVs) run by Cairn and BALCO have been instrumental in getting healthcare to the last mile, often acting as a life-saving tool in areas where healthcare is inaccessible.

Bringing affordable and accessible cancer care to Central India

With the rising incidence of cancer in India—it is estimated to touch 15.7 lakh lives in 2025 (as per the National Cancer Registry Programme)— AAF’s flagship healthcare project, BALCO Medical Centre (BMC), was set up in 2018, in Naya Raipur, Chhattisgarh, offering oncology services in Central India. The idea was to offer ultra-modern, multi-modality diagnostic and therapeutic facilities to people from the region, who would otherwise have to travel to far-off metros to seek treatment. Today the state-of-the-art 170-bed oncology facility is one of Central India’s largest and most advanced cancer institute and has already treated over 37,000 patients since its inception.

Building a menstrual health movement

Another of BALCO’s projects 'Nayi Kiran' is dedicated to tackling the stigma surrounding menstrual health by empowering people with knowledge on Menstrual Health Management (MHM) and safe reproductive health practices. Through a series of awareness and capacity-building activities, Nayi Kiran has successfully reached thousands of people in five blocks of Korba district, Chhattisgarh. This initiative combined with the deployment of MHVs and conduction of regular health camps has managed to tackle three major issues that plague reproductive healthcare in rural areas: inaccessibility, inability to afford and non-availability of basic primary health care.

Healthcare is a fundamental right and should be accessible to all, regardless of geography or socioeconomic status. By prioritising comprehensive healthcare services, AAF is not only addressing the immediate healthcare needs of rural India but also laying the groundwork for sustained well-being and prosperity of the nation.