The daily labourers, farmers and villagers living in this arid region of Rajasthan are poor. Dependance on rain for water and lack of pesticides and fertilizer makes this region prone to drought and improvishment. Although such subsistence agriculture is generally supplemented by work in the construction industry, it does not provide enough money for basic medical expenses. Official Government health indicators for Rajasthan mention e.g. infant mortality:80/1000 life births. female illiteracy 67%; 52% of girls in the age group 11-14 only are in school; 48%of all women in the reproductive lifespan are anaemic; 65% of all deliveries are at home without any qualified birth attendant; only 17% of children are immunised; 50% of all children are nutritionally deficient. However, these are average statistics for the whole state, including urban women and children whose health conditions are much better. Our own study of children in our area indicates that in the age group 0-7 years 66% girls are malnourished and 23% of these girls are severely malnourished (stunted and wasted). The same figures for boys are hardly better: 60% of the boys are malnourished and 21% of these are severely malnourished (stunted and wasted). The Khejri clinic provides this, much needed, basic medical care to an average of 70 patients a day, residing in 35 villages and hamlets in a radius of 10km of the health centre.

The large number of schools (62 with more than 11,000 children) in the surrounding villages are regularly visited for health check-ups. Since the last 2 years we are doing intensive work with 4-5 schools by providing health check-ups, treatment, health education and supplementary nutrition. Our full time gynaecologist attends daily to an increasing number of women who are pregnant or have serious gynaecological complications/infections. The clinic also provides supplementary protein rich food to some of the schools in our neighbourhood.