Over the past year, the number of patients visiting Sharwan Kumar, a 33-year-old rural health practitioner in village Neem Taal Khusrupur in the North Indian state of Bihar, has almost doubled. Kumar holds diplomas in acupressure, acupuncture and naturopathy. There is no qualified doctor in his village, and Patna Medical College, the nearest hospital, is almost 35 kilometers away. When Kumar got an opportunity to start a SkyHealth center as a franchisee of World Health Partners (WHP), a New Delhi-based non-profit, he decided to take it. “For a villager, however much he may want to, it is next-to-impossible to consult a doctor in the city. Technology has now made it possible. I took up the WHP franchisee because I was sure it would work,” says Kumar.
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