Women Pharmacist On Indo-Pak Border
40-year-old Sarabjit Kaur is the only pharmacist who has been working tiringly for 10 hours every day at a government dispensary in Amritsar district’s Naushera Dhalla village since last week. In the tension zone, lying barely 200 metres from the India-Pakistan border, her shift has increased from six hours to 10 hours following the Uri attacks by Pakistani militants and the subsequent surgical strikes by the Indian army.
Every day she travels 17 km on a scooter to the dispensary in Attari, a frontier village about 45 km from Amritsar city. She is always prepared to treat people who get wounded from bullets and shelling. She works at the dispensary from 8 am to 6 pm rigorously and stays alert for any immediate need. After the only doctor in the dispensary was moved to a camp in Gogo Bua, Kaur alone is taking care of the dispensary which serves three neighbouring villages with a total of 11,500 people.
But slowly, the place is being evacuated because of the tension of war. While the youngsters, women and children have left, the elderlies are guarding the house and crop. Kaur is being assisted by her 60-year-old helper Suvindar Kaur. The tense situation that they are facing due to the hostile relationship between the two nations is nothing new. Even during the Kargil war, they had faced a similar situation. Kaur’s family had refused to vacate the house even though there was military all around.