Calcutta Rescue (CR) is a non-governmental organisation operating in Kolkata and rural West Bengal. It is registered under West Bengal Societies Act 1961. It aims to provide free medical care and other benefits to the destitute and socially disadvantaged of these areas regardless of sex, age, caste or religion. The organisation has evolved from a pavement clinic in Middleton Row when Dr Jack Preger first started offering free medical treatment to the poor of Kolkata in 1979. Dr. Jack's efforts attracted the attention of many western travellers who stopped by to help and so the roadside clinic quickly grew. These volunteers soon decided that although they could not stay in Kolkata to help Dr. Jack, they could continue to support his work at home, thus Support Groups came into existence. We now have several support groups in Europe, Canada and Australia, without whom Calcutta Rescue would not stand today. Although we still have around 10 volunteers from western countries working in Kolkata at any one time, the organisation is largely operated by local staff and currently employs around 145 people.
At present the organisation operates four referral outpatient clinics at Tala Park, Chitpur, Sealdah and Belgachia. Between them they see approximately 250 to 350 patients a day. Free treatment, nutritional supplements, clothes and hygiene products are given to patients suffering from illnesses such as tuberculosis, leprosy, diabetes, heart disease, thalassaemia, malnutrition and trauma etc. CR’s outreach project works as a referral service for the clinics and assists with ensuring compliance and providing health education advice at patient homes. The outreach also runs preventative health interventions in selected areas. The state and local government are trying to implement national level interventions against diseases like leprosy, TB, HIV/ AIDS etc and are working with and through NGOs to ensure wider dispersal of these programmes. CR is working as a partner with the state to deliver TB treatment in both an urban and rural setting. Efforts are ongoing to work in the national initiatives against leprosy and arsenic control.
Besides medical care, CR also puts a heavy emphasis on education. CR operates two non-formal schools which provide nearly 300 slum children with free education, food and health screening and thus better prospects than their socio-economic condition might otherwise allow. Those children showing promise are given the opportunity to attend formal school, the fees, uniform and books also being provided for free. There are also two vocational training projects, based in two villages south of Kolkata, which teach the rudiments of weaving and produce cloth for patients clothes and handicrafts. Finally, there is a handicrafts department which gives training to women, most of whom are ex-patients and would not otherwise have a source of income.