Across the scattered, hilly terrains of South Rajasthan, access to reliable medical care remains a severe hurdle for vulnerable tribal populations. Recognizing that structural poverty and geographic isolation continuously undermine traditional hospital care, Dr. Sanjana stepped away from tertiary pediatrics to build a sustainable, grassroots alternative centered on human dignity.
In an exclusive interview, Dr. Sanjana Brahmawar Mohan details her transition from tertiary pediatrics to rural public health service and advocacy. Recognizing that hospital cures were repeatedly undone by rural poverty and lack of localized care, she co-founded Basic Healthcare Services. Today, BHS operates a network of 24/7 nurse-led Amrit Clinics, full-day Phulwari daycare centers, and people-centered research across remote regions. The clinics have served over 700,000 patient visits and are shifting rural healthcare from distant emergency response to continuous, dignified primary care.
From Academia to Rural Healthcare
Before dedicating her life to frontline community health, Dr. Sanjana Brahmawar Mohan trained as a pediatrician and achieved a position at a medical college alongside her husband. While her career path appeared secure, she experienced a growing sense of personal and professional dissatisfaction: “A common situation we would see was a child with severe malnutrition… the child would get better in a couple of weeks, go home, but would come back in a few months maybe even more malnourished. The question was: how do you bring a more lasting change in the health of the poor?”
“At that time we did not have an imagination about BHS, just knew that where we were was not fulfilling enough. So Pavitra (her husband) and I kept working and learning,” she says. “It was a nice collaboration – when he did his MPH I ran our household, later when I wanted to study Epidemiology, he took care of my fees. Over time a stark geographic disparity was becoming clearer: while urban centers like Udaipur were filled with medical colleges and hospitals, traveling just ten to fifteen kilometers into rural belts revealed a near-total absence of qualified healthcare providers.” The idea of BHS was taking shape.
“The answer to our question was now becoming clearer: the solution was to bring care closer to people, a care which was based in dignity. The idea of BHS first came from Pavitra, and it seemed to be just the right thing to do,” she shares. Together with a group of like-minded colleagues, they established Basic Healthcare Services, taking primary care directly to the doorsteps of vulnerable populations.
Rebuilding Care Through Amrit Clinics
To serve remote tribal communities across the Aravalli hills in South Rajasthan, BHS has established six Amrit Clinics located 45 to 120 kilometers away from major urban hubs. These regions face severe geographic isolation, lack reliable roads and network connectivity, and depend on small rain-fed farms.
As a result, nearly 70% of households rely on seasonal male migration to cities like Mumbai and Ahmedabad for hazardous labor, where cramped living conditions fuel widespread tuberculosis. Women left behind bear the heavy dual burden of managing farms and households without financial independence.
To address these barriers, BHS created a 24/7 nurse-led clinic model supported by weekly doctor visits and village-based female volunteers called Swasthya Kiran. Because the clinics are local and staffed primarily by female nurses, tribal women feel safe seeking care. Furthermore, because patients frequently refuse distant hospital referrals out of economic fear and transportation challenges, clinic nurses are trained to deliver prolonged on-site stabilization. Describing this critical intervention, Dr. Sanjana notes:
“They would tell us, ‘If you can do something for us here, please do, otherwise we will go.’ So we prepared ourselves to stabilize, treat, and keep the patient with us… many times, this stabilization brings about a change from a life-threatening to a manageable condition.”
Preventing Malnutrition With Phulwari Centers
The foundation’s intervention in child health deepened after BHS conducted research on local nutritional realities. The study revealed severe food insecurity: up to 90% of women had consumed no milk in the preceding 24 hours, and only a quarter of households had access to pulses. Because malnutrition was so pervasive, mothers had normalized the condition, assuming their underweight children were growing normally.
Realizing that standard dietary advice was ineffective without physical access to food, BHS established Phulwari daycare centers operating from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM for children aged six months to five years. Unlike traditional government Anganwadis that enroll children starting at age three, for four hours a day, Phulwaris intervene during early developmental windows with nutritious meals, early cognitive learning, and growth monitoring, and provide care for the entire day. Within a single year, child wasting levels drop from 30% down to 10%, while severe wasting drops from 10% to 2–3%. The full-day care also enables mothers to work wage jobs and build peer support networks.
Systemic Reform and Public Research
Today, BHS has managed approximately 700,000 patient visits, with women representing over 55% of all patients. To influence broader healthcare delivery, BHS established the Center for Primary Healthcare, a research unit focused on rural health challenges. Their research into occupational hazards exposed a rapid surge of fatal silicosis among migrant men operating machine-based stone grinders, enabling BHS to lobby government bodies to classify stone grinding as hazardous work and streamline compensation for affected families.
Navigating rural health operations also meant confronting severe staffing turnover, as newly trained nurses often left for government positions. Rather than viewing this as a setback, BHS built a structured training pipeline, nurse fellowships, and leadership pathways to empower junior staff.
Today, BHS actively scales its model through technical partnerships in Uttarakhand and Chhattisgarh, while collaborating with the Indian Council of Medical Research and IIM Udaipur to strengthen state Health and Wellness Centers in Rajasthan’s Salumbar district.
Advice for Aspiring Change Makers
For medical professionals and corporate leaders considering a move into social impact, Dr. Sanjana emphasizes that the personal growth gained far outweighs the effort expended. Working directly with underserved communities delivers immediate, meaningful validation, whether watching a critical tuberculosis patient recover or seeing a former Phulwari child enter formal schooling with confidence. Urging young change-makers to act on their purpose, Dr. Sanjana shares:
“What I have received in return is much more than what I have given… You see value every day. If you are having these thoughts inside of you, then do listen to them… Give it a try, immerse yourself in field realities, and let that experience guide you.”
The Logical Indian’s Perspective
Dr. Sanjana Brahmawar Mohan’s work demonstrates that effective healthcare reform is not achieved merely by constructing urban tertiary hospitals, but by embedding dignified, continuous primary care directly into marginalized communities. Structural health inequities persist when rural poverty and geographic isolation are treated as inevitable conditions rather than actionable challenges. By combining nurse-led clinical care, community-driven nutrition centers, and rigorous policy research, Basic Healthcare Services provides a proven blueprint for equitable healthcare delivery across rural India.
How can state healthcare frameworks better integrate nurse-led primary care models to ensure that essential medical services reach every isolated community?
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