Interview Times 
“The most successful people follow passion not paychecks” they say, but Dr. Chidatmika Khatua has proved it to be true. She took the biggest step when she left behind a promising job to establish the Sushruta Hospital & Trauma Care. However, that was just the beginning. With her endless zeal to work for the society, she went on to start Aryabhatta Trust and later the Adi Tribal Foundation (ATF).
While Dr. Khatua always had an inclination towards upliftment of Tribal Women, she has also managed to bring about a revolution with the launch of ‘ADI RANI- India’s First Tribal Pageant, which has changed the perception about tribal women and their community before the world.
Apart from her professional front, the social entrepreneur is associated with several other institutions in various roles including the Private School and Children Welfare Association, Anti-corruption Foundation of India, National Crime Intelligence Agency, Indian Chamber of Commerce Education &Skill, Rotary Club, Sanatan Dharm Purohit Association and the list is endless.
We were lucky enough to get some time with Dr. Khatua and had a conversation about her mission, vision and future goals.
Global Tribal Conclave 2022
1.) You have contributed significantly towards the upliftment of tribal women across the country. What is your vision behind it and the ongoing works in that direction?
I am a social entrepreneur but if you open my body you can find a soft corner for the tribals. Since childhood I always loved the village atmosphere, because I found the people there very genuine and pure. That always dragged me to the grass root level people. During my job period, I used to visit such villages to explore their villages, culture, tradition, food and everything.
In due course of time, though I had left touch with it for some time, in 2016, we launched an award for students called that ‘Kalinga Gouraba Award’ which was conferred to students with multiple-talent. We started it with the motto “Bana ra Malli ti, Bana re phuti mauli na jaau’. The objective was to visit the rural pockets and give the youths there a platform to display their talent and acknowledge their talent through the award.
That paved the way for the Adirani awards and in 2018, we started ‘Adirani’ – India’s first tribal queen. Fortunately, we executed it as planned and Pallavi Durua became the first tribal queen in it. It was also a great moment for us when Adirani was incorporated in the GK/ current affairs. Pallavi has gone through a lot of struggles to reach where she is today. While her parents and villagers were reluctant to allow her for the Adirani contest back then, she managed to break shackles and make a name for herself. After Adirani, I adopted her as my daughter, I sent her for the teachers training programme and she even completed her B.Ed. Today Pallavi is a role model for many tribal children in her village. We are also making a biopic on her. Adirani has also been recognised as India’s First Tribal Paegant by Golden Book of Records.
After the first Adirani, unfortunately the covid outbreak happened and we could not organise the second season as planned. But somehow, we could hold in 2022 in which Pooja Lakra from Chhattisgarh became the second Adirani out of 28 tribal women who had contested. For the next season, we are planning to take it Global but host it in Odisha. Progress in that direction is underway. That would give a huge platform to the 62 countries. Our main aim is to empower the livelihood of the tribal women as well their local products.
2.) Today Sushruta Hospital and Trauma care is one among the prominent private healthcare provider in the state, what according to you makes it different from other contemporaries?
Sushruta Hospital and Trauma Care is a doctor driven hospital. We stand tall in case of trauma care and we have some of the best doctors here, who take care of the patients till the critical micro vascular surgeries. They make sure that patients always go with a smile from here.
This apart, we have always believed in delivering highest quality of healthcare services. We have got some of the advanced facilities like a Burn Intensive Care Unit (ICU), a Smart Operation Theatre (OT) as well as a smart ICU besides our behavioural approach makes us stand out. The patients who enter here treated like family members. When a patient comes with lots of injury, not only they but the people who attend them are also in lot of turmoil. We try to make the treatment and the process as hassle free as possible.
Moreover, our plastic surgeons try to avoid amputation in most of the cases. They do the surgeries where they can cure their limbs without having to detach it. Time and again, wherever we do our camps, we make people aware about the ‘golden hour’. It is a limited periods soon after an accident whether on any road or industrial accident, during which if the patients is brought to the hospital, we try to treat them without making them lose their limbs or any other body part. So if in the right time you reach to the doctor then we can save your leg, hand or finger. So that’s the thing we practice. People come to us not only from Odisha but from other states too for their surgeries and they are very happy with our treatment and services here. Usually some of the cases which are not being taken by any other hospital, Sushrut is able to do that because we have super speciality doctors and best treatment where the people can get the best results. That’s where we stand unique compared to the other hospitals.
3.) As you are also the founder of Aryabhatta Trust, our readers would like to know about the inception and objective of the trust.
Aryabhatta Trust started in 2009 with a mission to give technical/professional training to youth and make them employable. During my job period I had taken many interviews where I realized though candidates where academically strong and possessed big degrees , when they entered the professional world they were treated as freshers due to lack of experience and exposure. So there was a huge void in the professional market.
My attempt was to bridge the gap between the academic world and professional world by providing them hands on training alongside their education so that when they apply for a job, they are taken as an experienced candidate. For example, for those having a commerce background, we gave them training in financial accounting and engaged them with CA firms for practical experience. Likewise develop short term courses were developed and disseminated to the target group.
Eventually, in 2011 we started the teachers training programme. In teachers training programme we collaborated with Universities affiliated by Odisha government and we tied up with them for training of the students. We are happy to share that more than 5500 youths have been trained to become teachers and got jobs in government and private schools.
Later in 2018, we started a state government project along with the SSEPD dept, where we deployed 3000 employees across several GP in different groups known as People Absence Group. Their work was to educate every household in rural areas about the welfare schemes and benefits of both state government and central government meant for them and help them avail it. They also helped us identify the vulnerable groups’ widows, destitute, PwD and drug addicts etc in those areas and address their concerns.
On the other hand, in 2014 we had started an initiative ‘Hunger Free Odisha’ to feed the needy and deprived people. It has been continuing every day since last nine years. Around 700-800 people are provided meals in front of AIIMS, Bhubaneswar on each day. We have developed infrastructure for it over the years and we now have a central kitchen and mobile van to cater them.
4.) Apart from your profession and philantrophy, in what other works are you involved in at present?
I am involved in several skill development programmes for different target groups including students, youths and women. Similarly, tribal women empowerment has been my personal interest. I am also the president of anti-corruption foundation under which we make the youth aware about what leads to corruption and what role can an individual play in curbing it. I am also president of Rotary, where we have been doing impactful programme. Basically, all my works and efforts are directed towards taking Odisha to the global level.
5.) In your opinion, how is the Odisha government working towards Social Upliftment and do you feel there is need for any reforms in the policy and schemes?
I believe the Odisha government has devised many policies with great intentions but unless you implicate it in the grass root level, it is of no use.
One of the drawbacks of the state government is that, they are unable to penetrate to the grass root level. But to ensure it, I would suggest that they should go for PPP mode. The government cannot reach out personally to the beneficiaries, but several private bodies are there who can work towards delivering it to the end users. The functioning should be decentralized for better governance.
Secondly, when we talk about being vocal for local we should also apply it in case of human resources. While we have a good portion of work force within the state who also need livelihood support, the government in some cases is still opting for outsourcing which should stop. They should implement local resources, train them, and give expertise and empowering them.
Thirdly domain expertise is very crucial. For instance, through state government policy makers have designed BSKY, but that scheme is practically ineffective in addressing healthcare requirements of beneficiaries. They are promising quality treatment in less prices which is impossible. As private healthcare players, we are aware of how it works. If such schemes are designed by a domain expert, it could be implemented and propagated more widely.
