Prescription for a change

BENEATH the hush of a remote village in Pudukkottai, a team of youngsters stays equipped with skincare ointments and medicines in hand, ever ready to volunteer for a cause. Led by a 45-year-old doctor, a deep sense of empathy fills their eyes as they give away the prescribed remedies to the ones in need, taking no money in return. For them, healing the pain is important, but treating the cause, indispensable.

- PEARSON LENEKAR SR @ Pudukkottai

Dr Dhetchanamoorthy's treating patients at a camp organised for treatment and for spreading social awareness on health issues | EXPRESS

From responding to the contaminated water crisis in Vengaivayal to holding awareness campaigns themed around Gaza, dermatologist Dr S Dhetchanamoorthy has turned medicine into a medium for social awakening. Over the past two decades, this Pudukkottai-based doctor has conducted over 50 medical camps across Tamil Nadu, providing dermatology consultations and medicines free of cost to those who cannot afford private care. Unlike routine outreach programmes, each of his camps carries a larger social message that ties healthcare to empathy, equality and civic awareness. "Medicine can heal the skin, but awareness heals society. When people understand the cause of their problems, they start demanding accountability and change," he says.