They begin in a mud-hut clinic, listening to villagers and training local women as health workers. Over time, maternal deaths fall to zero and infant mortality — once among the worst in the country — drops to single digits. But the work doesn’t stop there. They realise that health cannot survive without livelihood and nutrition. From this understanding grows a series of remarkable initiatives: a collective of organic farmers who rebuild soil and income; a women’s enterprise network that produces millet foods; and Porgai, an embroidery cooperative of Lambadi artisans whose work now hangs in the new Parliament building.

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When drought strikes, the community turns to watershed projects — farmers, doctors, and nurses labouring side by side to dig trenches and recharge wells. Later, they learn to demand accountability from their panchayat, transforming local governance and electing one of their own nurses as president. Roads, electricity, and clean water follow. What began as a medical mission becomes a model of self-governance, where health, economy, and democracy flow together.

Three decades later, Sittilingi stands as a living experiment in what community-owned health can look like — where the doctor becomes a facilitator, the patient becomes a participant, and an entire valley learns to heal itself.

Credits

Akshay Ramuhalli, Bruce Lee Mani, Gorveck Thokchom, Kishor Mandal, Kruthika Rao, Narayan Krishnaswamy, Prashant Vasudevan, Ram Sheshadri, Sananda Dasgupta, Seema Seth, Shraddha Gautam, Supriya Joshi, and Velu Shankar.

Special thanks to Dr.Regi George for being part of the episode.