Life of Change A

From a modest beginning in Hubli Noshir H. Antia became a pioneer of plastic surgery in modern India and established one of the earliest burns units in the country at the J.J. Hospital in Bombay. Soon he realized that health could not be the domain of medical science alone but needed to be framed by the social cultural and economic perspectives of the common people. He and his team began training women volunteers in Mandwa and Malshiras an experiment that became the blueprint for the Community Health Workers Scheme. Combining scientific temper with social vision he set up the two complimentary organizations the Foundation for Research in Community Health (FRCH) and the Foundation for Medical Research (FMR). In this candid and critical account Antia is unsparing of the medical profession and laments the emergence of the health industry at the cost of health for all .