From 4,000 tribal lives to 150 villages—a physician’s journey of bringing quality healthcare to the most remote communities of Tamil Nadu.
Dr S C Chandilya
Founder, Beyond Frontiers Trust | Senior Consultant Physician, Internal Medicine & Diabetology, Apollo Hospitals, Chennai
After 49 years of medical practice, I feel a strong urge to give back to society and put the knowledge and experience I have gathered to better use. Three years ago, that urge took us to the Jawadhu Hills with a simple purpose: to reach communities whose circumstances place modern, quality healthcare beyond their grasp. What began as a small step has travelled many miles. Beyond Frontiers Trust has now conducted 18 free specialist medical camps, touched more than 4,000 tribal lives and served people from 150 villages. Even residents of settlements inaccessible by road have been brought by tractor to the nearest camp for diagnosis and treatment.
Our vision is to provide ethical, comprehensive screening, diagnosis and treatment to underserved communities in rural Tamil Nadu, supported by research and fieldwork in hill regions. The Jawadhu Hills stretch across Tiruvannamalai, Vellore and Tirupattur districts and are home to nearly two lakh Adivasi people. On our first visit, Dr Sukumaran and I met communities living with ailments they did not know were treatable or curable. Awareness of hygiene, menstruation and pregnancy also needed urgent attention. I had earlier organised medical camps in Jaffna while working with Apollo Hospitals in Sri Lanka from 2002 to 2009 and had served survivors of the 2004 tsunami. That experience convinced me that travelling specialist camps could work here too.
I approached trusted friends, colleagues and medical professionals whom I had respected for decades. Every one of them joined with enthusiasm. What started with three or four senior doctors trekking through the hills and travelling by jeep along forest paths has grown into a team of 16 senior medical professionals, strengthened by younger specialists. They make the long journey despite age, physical limitations and personal commitments, offering their time, energy and expertise without hesitation. They are the pillars of this trust, and I remain deeply grateful to Dr Sukumaran, Dr K Pandian, Dr Radha Bhai Prabhu, Dr Shanthi Gunasingh, Dr Shanti Vivekanandan, Dr Saathappan, Dr Sukumar and our Chief Pathologist, Dr Sare Paul. I also thank the younger specialists who have strengthened tribal healthcare: Dr Prabhu, Dr Gayatri, Dr Jayasheela, Dr Saravanan, Dr Nagarajan, Dr Chidambaranathan and Dr Selva Muthu Kumaran.
None of this could have become sustainable or scalable without our donors and partners. Hand in Hand, the Kanchipuram-based NGO to which Mr Chandrasekar Sitaraman introduced me, supported our first three camps and helped us prove that the model was both necessary and effective. Mr C K Sreedharan, a retired Chief Forest Officer and former Chairman of Srinivasan Services Trust, introduced me to Mr Swaran Singh, IAS (Retd), then Chairman of the Trust. His encouragement, strategic advice and logistical support enabled us to complete more than a dozen camps at a pace we had not imagined. Mrs Jayashree Muralidharan, IAS (Retd), has since taken the baton as Chairperson, and I believe the next phase of our journey is in excellent hands.
Our immediate priority is early detection and sustained management of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, thyroid and kidney disorders, polyarthritis, and cervical and breast cancers. We will link diagnosed patients with government systems, including Makkalai Thedi Maruthuvam and comprehensive emergency obstetric and newborn-care centres. We will maintain and digitise individual health records so that each patient, and any doctor treating that person later, has a meaningful long-term history. Every camp will continue to include health education in simple Tamil on anaemia, protein-calorie malnutrition, sanitation and hygiene, because lasting change depends on understanding as much as treatment.
The most important next step is to bring a new generation of specialists into this mission. We intend to keep serving the Jawadhu Hills while carrying quality care to more rural communities across Tamil Nadu. Short videos and simplified health lectures can be screened through mobile medical vans as they make their village rounds. Volunteers on two-wheelers can return each month with medicines prescribed at the previous consultation. This combination of specialist camps, regular follow-up and repeated education can turn occasional contact into continuity of care.
Our long-term vision has two parts. First, we want to pilot a “community nutrition kitchen” for village clusters. We see severe anaemia and protein-calorie malnutrition, especially among children and pregnant women. Nutritious food and supplements can address that burden, and a successful pilot can be replicated sustainably across the hills. Second, we want to establish a full-fledged clinical laboratory at Jamunamarathur, the taluk headquarters, so basic tests and diagnostics are within reach. We will continue until we have served every last village in the Jawadhu Hills and many villages beyond.
Dr Shobana Kamineni
Chief Guest | Executive Chairperson, Apollo Health Co Ltd | Promoter Director, Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Limited
It is a pleasure to celebrate Beyond Frontiers Trust and the courage behind its work in the Jawadhu Hills. This gathering also feels like coming home. Dr Udhaya and Dr Bama have been known to me since childhood and helped us build Apollo; Ms Mala and I were classmates; and Dr Chandilya is one of Apollo’s most popular doctors, whose singing I have also enjoyed. My father, Dr Suneeta and Dr Preetha all sent him their best wishes. I know how difficult it is for doctors to leave the physical and emotional security of a familiar clinical environment. At Apollo, we built an environment in which doctors could do their best; here, doctors step into remote terrain carrying little more than a medical bag and the determination to offer the finest care possible. I congratulate every doctor, volunteer, donor and partner associated with this mission.
The idea of “healthcare without distance” is simple but powerful. Distance in healthcare is not only geography. It is access, price, affordability and, above all, trust. These are the distances this team is bridging. India has made remarkable progress by combining excellent doctors with hospitals capable of supporting them. Digital health platforms can now extend that progress further. After spending the past several years helping to build these platforms, I have seen how technology can make geography history. Hundreds of millions of Indians carry digitally enabled phones; increasingly, we can put medicine, information and follow-up care directly into their hands.
Technology must reinforce the fundamentals Dr Chandilya has identified: awareness, affordable diagnosis and early treatment of non-communicable diseases. Too many patients arrive only when treatment has become difficult. If we identify risk early, diagnose economically and begin treatment promptly, we can build a healthier population. About 65 per cent of Indians live in rural areas, so the opportunity is enormous. My father was the first person from his village to leave, study and become a doctor; roughly eight decades later, some villages remain separated from the opportunities of our great cities. When a medical team enters a remote village, it brings care, but it also leaves a footprint of possibility. A child who sees that team may begin to believe that he or she can become a doctor one day.
Apollo has learned the same lesson through total-health work in my father’s village and across about 60 surrounding villages, where individuals have been assessed across the course of their lives. We have also worked with the Chenchu community in Srisailam, where life expectancy was once only 41 years. I have attended camps there and know the difficulty of reaching such communities, the time involved and the reality one encounters on arrival. You never forget the recognition that this, too, is India. Bringing that reality into public view is itself an important service.
No organisation can close these gaps alone. Government can bring intent and infrastructure, but trusts, hospitals, CSR programmes, doctors and volunteers must work together. The goal is not merely development in the abstract; it is to ensure that nobody is left behind. Access to healthcare is fundamental to human dignity, and collaboration is the only credible way to provide it at scale. Helen Keller’s words capture the spirit: “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” Apollo is proud to be associated with this effort. I have asked Dr Chandilya to allow Apollo CSR to support Beyond Frontiers Trust, and we will take that commitment forward.
