Click here to join Express Pune WhatsApp channel and get a curated list of our stories
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
Tags:
Journalism of Courage
For Dr Lalitha Regi and Dr Regi George, named co-recipients of the 2025 Paul Farmer Award for Global Health Equity at McGill University, Montreal, Canada, the recognition holds immense significance in the world of public health.
“We are deeply honoured to receive this award. The Sittilingi model is rooted in community participation and will inspire more doctors to serve in rural areas,” Dr George told The Indian Express. The model also includes ecological sustainability and culturally respectful care that will inspire more doctors to serve in rural areas across India and globally, Dr Regi added.
In his advice to young doctors, Dr Regi said there was as much challenge or even more in rural healthwork as there is in any fancy specialties in the city. “If you have it in you, that is the place to go,” he said.
Their journey began when they arrived in Sittilingi Valley, Tamil Nadu, in 1993. The area’s health indicators were among the worst in India: infant mortality rate was 147 per 1,000 live births, and maternal deaths were frequent.
Starting from a small thatched hut that served as their first clinic, they worked alongside the local tribal community to build what is now a 35-bed hospital and network of trained health workers.
Their sustained engagement has helped reduce infant mortality rate to 8 per 1,000, with no maternal deaths in 15 years. Recognising that health depends on food security, livelihoods, and environment, the couple broadened their vision beyond medicine. They supported farmers in shifting to organic, millet-based agriculture and co-founded the Sittilingi Organic Farmers Association (SOFA), now over 700 members strong.
The couple has spent over three decades advancing health equity and social justice through the Tribal Health Initiative (THI) and also created enterprises that empower women and preserve local traditions, such as the Porgai Artisans Association, which revived traditional Lambadi embroidery, and Vanavil, a tailoring collective.
“The story of Sittilingi Valley is one of transformations through solidarity,” Dr Robert Platt, Director of McGill School of Population and Global Health, said, adding these initiatives have brought economic stability, improved nutrition, and renewed cultural pride — showing that lasting health equity grows from the soil of justice and self-reliance.
According to Dr Madhukar Pai, Chair of McGill’s Department of Global and Public Health, the Paul Farmer Lectureship and Award for Global Health Equity, was set up by McGill in 2024 in memory of the late Dr Paul Farmer, a physician, anthropologist, and co-founder of Partners In Health — whose work redefined global health through his moral commitment to the world’s most marginalised communities.
Each year, the award recognises an individual or couple whose life’s work embodies Dr Farmer’s vision of a “preferential option for the poor”. “This year’s co-recipients were selected through a rigorous two-stage review process that included evaluation by an international selection panel from among 37 nominations worldwide,” Dr Pai added.
