Ratan Chandra Kar

Ratan Chandra Kar is a retired chief medical officer of the Andaman and Nicobar health services, where he worked from 1988 to 2022 and pioneered medical care for the Jarawa tribe. He was named for the Padma Shri in 2023 in the field of medicine, from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands ^[1].

Early postings

Kar was born on 4 May 1954 at Ghatal in Midnapore district, West Bengal, and took his MBBS at Nil Ratan Sircar Medical College, Kolkata, in 1981 ^[2]. He then worked in Nagaland among the Konyak tribe, and in Tripura with a battalion of the Assam Rifles ^[2].

Winning the Jarawa’s trust

He joined the Andaman and Nicobar administration in September 1988 ^[2]. In 1998, as medical officer at the primary health centre in Kadamtala, he came into contact with the Jarawa, and despite their early resistance won their confidence ^[2]. When measles broke out among them in 1999, he and his team helped save a community that was close to dying out, and he set up an eco-friendly ward where Jarawa patients could be treated ^[2]. The Jarawa population has since grown from 255 in 1999 to more than 560 ^[2].

From 2006 to 2011 he was deputy director for tribal health and welfare, and he helped shape health care policies for the Jarawa, Onge and Shompen tribes ^[2].

He has written about his experiences in Andamaner Aadim Jan Jaati Jarawa in Bengali and The Jarawas of the Andaman in English, and has also written on the Cellular Jail and the islands’ penal settlement ^[2]. The Lieutenant Governor gave him a commendation certificate on 26 January 2000 ^[2].