PERSONALITY
BAHULEYAN: DOCTOR
WITH A MISSION
US$ 20-m gift to God’s Own Country
Haunted by dying screams NRI doctor donates US$ 20 million to
Kerala village Chemmanakary in Kottayam
By THE VERDICT TEAM
CHEMMANAKARY, ONE of the typical Kerala villages in
Kottayam district has had the fortune to have a Kumar Bahuleyan born
there. Dr Bahuleyan, look up to the village as his own home and
started transforming the village into a heaven by investing his hard
earned American dollars into make a shape to the life of his
counterparts in Kerala.
Bahuleyan, who belongs to the ‘untouchable community’ (read as Dalit),
lived in the village seeing the poverty even though his father was a
physician in the village. He saw his three siblings dying because of
starvation. The family brought up the two remaining in the poor family
and Bahuleyan who was good in education, fought to survive and go to
the school. He fought, disease and hunger every step of the way and
his brilliancy helped him to get through the Kerala government’s
scholarship while studying. He stood first in while education and it
helped him to acquire a medical degree. Dr Bahuleyan was an eternal
optimist, in his own words.
After graduating in medical science, the Kerala government taking into
account his ability to circumvent sent him to the United Kingdom for
for neurosurgical training as the state did not have a neurosurgeon at
that time. When the doctor returned home the military picked him up
for the forces, which did not have a qualified neurosurgeon, during
the time of Chinese aggression.
However, the Keralites does not have the fortune to get served by the
eminent doctor or it may be the doctors ‘fortune’ that the Kerala
government did not have a place for him. A fresh man had filled his
place, when he returned. The bureaucratic red tape followed doctor and
the qualified surgeon had to sit at home ideally. Waiting made doctor
to flee his mother country to Onatario, Canada in the United Kingdom
seeking an opportunity their. He found a right place in Buffalo, where
for the first time in his life he achieved economic and professional
security.
However, doctor never forgot his native place, Chemmanakary. He kept
visiting the village regularly whenever he got a short vacation.
Whenever he visited his native village he found the sad state of his
village is as it is even after fifty years of much celebrated
Independence. The doctor found that his native still did not have
potable drinking water, sanitation, electricity, roads and health
centers. The condition of sanitation in the village was very poor and
he noticed that even well settled community in his village never
bothered about the contamination, which was lacking people’s
awareness.
The doctor started acting accordingly. He never tried to blame the
authorities or the people living around him. Instead, the energetic
doctor took an oath to set up a beautiful and clean village. In 1989,
doctor established a not-for-profit private organization to bring
basic health care to Kerala villages. The doctor put in around Rs 10
crore during two three years, and his attempt was to come back to his
village and do some community work.
The Bahuleyan Charitable Foundation, founded by Dr Kumar Bahuleyna,
began with a health survey to pick a target area. It chose an area
comprising 17 sq. miles with a population of 66,356.The foundation
plunged into a latrine construction programme in this area where 5009
of the 18,362 houses did not have latrines.So far 619 latrinees
meeting WHO standards and costing Rs.4,000 each have been built. "The
people initially had no clue what to do with a latrine and started
using it as a store room,” says Bahuleyan.
In 1993 the foundation built a small clinic in the village to treat
pregnant women and children. Demand was so high in spite of poor
accessibility ( there were no roads leading to the clinic),that the
centre was soon upgraded and moved to Vaikom town. The foundation also
spent Rs.50 lakh to construct a 6km road to the main highway and
subsidiary roads to link the clinic.
The Vaikom wing of The Indo- American Hospital opened in 1995 with 30
beds."It was named to highlight the fact that it is built with the
money I earned in the U.S and to acknowledge the American taxpayer’s
contribution,” explained the doctor.
But with most of the patients being poor the hospital was making
little by way of revenue and its very existence was threatened . "I
started this whole project out of my sentiments, with no planning,”
said Bahuleyan.” " However I realized I had to do something revenue
generating to make it viable.”
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The revenue surplus and the proceeds from the resort would help to
augment and expand the reach of charity of Indo-American Hospital.
The Latest Take from the Press…
EIGHTY-ONE-YEAR-OLD KUMAR Bahuleyan, a neurosurgeon, who once led a
lavish lifestyle that included moving around in a Rolls Royce and five
Mercedes, besides an aeroplane, has used the money to build a hospital
specialising in neurosurgery, a health clinic and a spa in
Chemmanakary in Kerala's Kottayam District. A Dalit based in Buffalo,
New York, for the last 34 years, has given 20 million dollars to his
village in Kerala.
Bahuleyan said that the desire to do something for his native place
germinated between 1982 and 1987, when he visited the area, and found
that nothing had changed. He said that he felt like returning
something to the village, which had taught him and made him something
in life.
Bahuleyan says he lost two younger brothers and a sister to
water-borne disease in 1930s, and even today he says he is haunted by
their dying screams. As a 'untouchable', Bahuleyan had to take a
circuitous route to school because he wasn't allowed to pass a Hindu
temple. A brilliant student, he succeeded in joining a medical college
in Madras. From their, he proceeded to Edinburgh for six years of
neurosurgical training before eturning home.
Unfortunately, there was no vacancy for a neurosurgeon in those days,
and Bahuleyan left for Kingston and then Albany Medical College,
before coming to Buffalo in 1973 to work with noted American
neurosurgeon Dr John Zoll.
During his 26-year career, Bahuleyan served as a clinical associate
professor in neurosurgery at the University at Buffalo before retiring
in 1999 as a multi-millionaire.
In 1989, he set up the Bahuleyan Charitable Foundation, which built a
small clinic in India for young children and pregnant women in 1993 in
south India. Bahuleyan's foundation also built the Indo-American
Hospital Brain and Spine Centre in 1996, starting with 80 beds.
The foundation opened the Kalathil Health Resorts, offering luxury
rooms, health spas and exercise rooms in 2004.
Bahuleyan's latest venture -- East India Seven Seas Sailing Company,
plans to invite applications from Americans willing to spend a few
weeks in India, to volunteer in Bahuleyan's hospital and to teach
sailing.
Bahuleyan lives with his wife, pathologist Indira Kartha. He spends
six months of the year in America, and rest in India, looking after
the work of his foundation.
INDO-AMERICAN HOSPITAL
BRAIN & SPINE CENTRE
Chemmanakary, Akkarappadam (P.O),
Vaikom 686 143, Kerala, India
Tel / Fax: (91-4829) 273281, 273282, 273283, 274163
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