Dhananjay Diwakar Sagdeo

Dhananjay Diwakar Sagdeo is the chief medical officer of the Swami Vivekananda Medical Mission in Wayanad, which has served the district’s tribal communities since 1972. He was named for the Padma Shri in 2021 in the field of medicine, from Kerala ^[1].

From Nagpur to the hills

Sagdeo was born in Nagpur on 16 August 1956 and took his MBBS from Indira Gandhi Medical College, Nagpur, in 1980 ^[2]. Working in villages around Nagpur showed him how little medical care tribal people received, and he decided to work where there were no doctors ^[2].

He moved to Wayanad, a hilly district where about 17% of people are tribal, and in 1980 opened a small clinic focused on their needs ^[2].

A clinic becomes a hospital

Under his leadership the clinic has grown into a well-equipped 36-bed hospital where tribal patients get free treatment and food ^[2]. It now has a laboratory, specialist clinics, ECG, an ambulance and mobile dispensaries, along with sub-centres, a school in tribal areas and a group of village health volunteers ^[2].

Sagdeo was the first to spot sickle cell anaemia among Wayanad’s tribal people and alerted the government; from 1997 to 2001 AIIMS, New Delhi, ran a pilot project to screen for it and manage it ^[2]. The mission’s work centres on counselling families about the inherited condition ^[2].

Beyond medicine

The mission also runs livelihood projects such as bamboo craft and tailoring, along with de-addiction centres ^[2]. Its one-teacher schools have helped bring literacy to younger tribal people ^[2]. His guiding motto is “Manava seva is Madhava seva”, service to people is service to God ^[2].

He has received awards from the Indian Medical Association, Rotary, Lions and other groups ^[2].