Lifeline Express: Hospital Train in Rural India

Abstract

India’s medical service industry is an emerging force in Southeast Asia, which should be recognized. A large portion of the country’s GDP is being earned through this sector. Paradoxically, India’s rural sphere has always been highly deprived of medical facilities even in rudimentary level. This huge imbalance was previously an issue for India to reach to a footing through innovation. India still being a developing country has majority of people living in rural areas where quality healthcare is not only difficult to avail but sometimes even hard to access. In such circumstances, an initiative like Lifeline Express (LLE) has provided the people with access to quality healthcare which has been crucially needed. It is a very simple idea but incredibly complex in terms of execution throughout the whole region. The LLE is a hospital which moves throughout rural India in a form of a fully equipped train. Since 1991, this initiative in India has generated some commendable projects through which it has served many rural Indians. Through this case, it will be comprehensible of how the train and the medical team function and will show the limitations and challenges healthcare in India is facing and how LLE has proved its fantastic ability to fight with the constraints and make healthcare reach the doorsteps of the rural people. Despite the challenges and limitations, it is also been revealed how the journey of LLE has grown from a three-coach train to seven-coach train where patients get treatment of many diseases from the early 1990s to this day.