Community Shramdaan: IMA advocates community service by doctors

Community Shramdaan: IMA advocates community service by doctors

New Delhi, Jan 10, 2017: Community participation is an important component of medical professionalism. Community volunteerism offers opportunities to professionals to understand health in a social context and address the social determinats of good healthcare. The concept of shramdaan by doctors is centered around this idea.

Literally, shramdaan means volunatry, in-kind contribution as a whole towards a developmental community project.

Speaking about the same Padma Shri Awardee Dr. K.K Aggarwal – National President, Indian Medical Association (IMA) and , President Heart Care Foundation of India (HCFI) and Dr RN Tandon – Honorary Secretary General IMA in a joint statement said, “The concept of shramdaan derives its roots from the principles of Mahatma Gandhi. The first principle is Teamwork. According to the concept, a team effort is the most successful and fruit- bearing if the task assigned is distributed based on individual strengths. The second principle agrees that profession works best if it is combined with passion. IMA wants to foster this concept of civic responsibility and teamwork amongst medical professionals. The association is advocating 1 hour of mandatory community service a week”.

“As an effort to give back to the community, IMA advocates that every Friday, between 4-5 pm every medical organization be involved in community work. Every individual in the organizational hierarchy from top to bottom should be involved in the collective effort without any from of discrimination. The idea is to join one with one and make eleven. In community shramdaan, every individual is a contributing entity and everyone is equal without any bias- this is the true essence of shramdaan” added Dr. Aggarwal.

The concept of Mahatma Gandhi’s principle applies to shramdaan. The volunteer work or the civic responsibility is most likely to bear fruit if all contributors work according to their strengths and more importantly, their passions. When choosing how to reach out to the community, choose what your passion dictates. This type of effort will most likely be more successful in achieving the greater benefit. Community shramdaan is an important concept in medical professionalism as it provides doctors a way to engage socially with the community whilst achieving a sense of higher purpose.

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About IMA: Indian Medical Association is the only representative, national voluntary organization of Doctors of Modern Scientific System of Medicine, which looks after the interest of doctors as well as the well being of the community at large. It has its Headquarter in Delhi and State / Terr. Branches in 29 States and Union Territories. It has over 2, 53,000 doctors as its members through more than 1650 active local branches spread across the country.