Dr Pol

A dentist by profession and a selfless philanthropist by nature, Dr Avinash Pol is 

a person who wears many hats. In the small city of Satara while running his dental clinic, Dr Pol would often hear from his patients coming from rural areas about the severe water crisis in their villages and  about  lack  of  toilets  and  unhygienic conditions due to which the villagers would get recurring bouts of cholera, gastro, malaria etc. Though the govt. had created a lot of good schemes for villages, yet due to the villager's lack of knowledge about the same, they were unable to avail of the benefits and neither was the govt. able to implement these schemes where it was most needed. Hearing these problems made Dr Pol decide that he would work as a catalyst between the villagers and the govt. and he started work in Beblewadi in 1997 to construct a toilet block for women. He initially faced a lot of problems from politicians but using his sweet tongue he won them over and completed his work. Gradually he got many govt. schemes sanctioned and implemented and constructed roads, school buildings, check dams, farm ponds for water conservation, biogas units in every house in Beblewadi with the help of the villagers and other volunteers. He continued to do similar work in 700 other villages and today Satara's toilet facilities in villages has increased from 30% to 90% and with improvement in hygienic conditions, water borne diseases have come down drastically.Three of Satara's villages have got Clean Village" Awards conferred by President APJ Kalam in 2005. He started women's Self Help Groups in Asgaon village where women stitch gowns and masks to provide to hospitals. He has persuaded youths to do 'Shramdaan' and got them to clean a dry Godoli lake and resurrect it again. Dr Pol works as a "servant leader" for social causes by influencing young villagers and changing their mindset. Without forming any NGO, he has convinced 3,500 like-minded activists to work for rural India and is affectionately called by all as a 'one man army'!

DR. POL

Satara, Maharashtra.

Mobile:+91-7588059497

Email:avinash_pol@rediffmail.com

Compile from Caring Frineds, Mumbai