A Glimpse into the Glorious Work of Mahan Trust

Presenting the journey of an organisation that transformed the healthcare facility and created sustainable solutions to combat the major healthcare evils of a community living in a remote part in the state of Maharashtra, India.

The MAHAN (Meditation, AIDS, Health, Addiction, Nutrition) Trust is a non-government organization established in 1998 to improve healthcare in the region of Melghat located in Maharashtra. Melghat is a hilly forest area in the Satpuda mountain ranges where the population comprises of tribal ethnicity with the Korku community being the chief tribe.
 The major occupation of the population includes farming or daily wage work. There is a lack of healthcare facilities, electricity, and literacy in the Melghat region. Some of the major physical health difficulties constitute to high child mortality rate, malnutrition, pneumonia, and others. The interventions provided by Mahan Trust has helped significantly in breaking superstitions and developing the health of the individuals residing in the Melghat area.

The trust has built a specialised hospital, an eye care hospital and hospice facility, for ensuring appropriate treatment care for the members of Melghat area. The trust has broken the superstitions of the tribal community to a large extent and helped them avail hospital care. The Trust has helped over 100,000 individuals and performed over 3000 surgeries in their hospital. These efforts have gradually helped the community understand the importance of hospital care. The trust’s strategy for combating one of the major issues faced by the area, i.e., Malnutrition is a perfect example of their efforts and dedication.

Since the Melghat area consists of over 300 villages, Dr. Ashish Satav, the President of Mahan Trust realised it would be difficult to reach all the members of the community to provide adequate treatment. Dr. Satav trained semi-literate tribal adolescents to identify illnesses and provide treatment. Dr. Satav and team intervened to resolve the critical issue of malnutrition in the Melghat area and implemented the Behaviour Change Communication (BCC) strategy to widen reach and further help the community members to avail treatments for the existing health conditions. This resulted in a significant decrease in the child mortality rates and malnutrition cases in the Melghat region.

It is rightly said, “Prevention is better than cure.” To prevent the condition of malnutrition, the Mahan Trust has built Nutrition Garden and Nutrition Farm using the kitchen wastewater. They have developed over 6100 nutrition farms and over 2800 nutrition farm, which produces over 20,000 kilos of organic vegetables annually. This initiative has helped the community members to sustain themselves and avoid going to the market to purchase vegetables.
The initiatives of Mahan Trust have significantly improved the health and well-being of the people residing in the Melghat area. Concurrently, the trust has set an example and inspired the world to envision for all and make it a reality.