More than 300 healthcare workers who provide oxygen to people in rural Bengal were felicitated at a city auditorium on Sunday.

The members of the Consortium for Rural Healthcare Providers’ Welfare were the star attractions at the celebration of the 18th foundation day of Liver Foundation, an NGO that works in the public health delivery system.

The consortium, formed and mentored by the foundation, played a stellar role in providing oxygen to people during the Covid pandemic. They have continued to support the emergency oxygen needs of the rural communities through the Oxygen Security Circle Initiative.

“During Covid, they were of great help, apart from Asha workers. When the Covid cases dwindled, we were left with many oxygen concentrators.... Then, we came up with the concept of oxygen security circles. The informal healthcare providers are the pillars of the circle,” said Abhijit Chowdhury, the chief mentor of the foundation.

Post-Covid, the foundation distributed around 400 oxygen concentrators among service providers across the state. The consortium was formed. Their brief was simple — provide oxygen, free of cost, to anyone who needs it in villages.

The leaders of the consortium were invited to Calcutta for felicitation on Sunday. They came from Purulia, Murshidabad, Birbhum, South and North 24-Parganas and Nadia.

The healthcare service providers have undergone a sea change in the past 10-15 years, said Partha Sarathi Mukherjee, the director of the foundation.

“They used to be self-proclaimed doctors but lacked formal training. We have been training them for a long time. We wanted to convert them into an enriched clan of health workers. In end-2015, the state government started a six-month training course for them,” he said.

“The consortium was formed in 2022. Rural healthcare service providers have different associations across the state. The number must have been more than 100. By bringing them under one umbrella, a big pool of human resources can be used to improve the healthcare delivery system considerably.”

Chowdhury said the great strength of the service providers was their mass connection.

“During Covid, the lack of preparedness of the healthcare system was very evident. We were overwhelmed during the oxygen crisis. It was then that we thought of making communities resilient. Resilient not only for the time being but for the future. We wanted to do it with minimal infrastructural needs. We had a large number of untrained rural healthcare service providers. They are mostly self-trained. But they are, by and large, by the side of the people in need.

“We are never saying they are ideal. But despite their limitations, they are by the side of the people,” he said.

Actor Debshankar Haldar was one of the guests at the event.