2008 started off on an interesting note as I spent January 1 checking out  ‘Khushi Clinic’ at New Delhi’s Sanjay Gandhi Transport Nagar on the outskirts of the city. A joint initiative by Gates Foundation & TCI Foundation, Khushi Clinics are a great example of what happens when a business icon focuses on social change.

While the focus is on HIV/AIDS amongst a specific high-risk group, viz. truckers, what’s different is the Microsoft-like approach to planning( thorough!),scale( nation-wide!) and results( metrics!). Through a partnership with TCI Foundation, 17 truckers’ ‘halt points’ across the country are being targeted under this initiative.
At the Transport Nagar I visited, the ‘Khushi Clinic’ is positioned as a general health clinic for truckers, while simultaneously emphasizing behavioral change with regard to their sexual practices. Tucked away in the heart of Transport Nagar, the clinic- which operates for 8 hours – offers free consulting, and medicines on cost-to-cost basis.  High-quality, standardized communication via films, street plays, etc promote safe behaviour and condom usage. Innovations like ‘Khushi passport’ – which each trucker carries- ensure that medical history is seamlessly transferred to other ‘halt points’ in the country.
As yet another example of how a successful business practice has been transferred to the social sector, it was fascinating to see how nationwide presence has been achieved by using the best-available, local ‘channel partner’. In the case of Delhi, the ‘Khushi Clinic’ is run by the highly-competent Deepa Bajaj of Child Survival India( CSI).

During the time we spent with Deepa, it was evident that the original vision of Khushi Clinics has been completely internalized by Deepa, who in turn, evangelizes it with equal passion and commitment.

Results are meticulously tracked. For instance, Nov’07 saw 1600 footfalls, of which 2/3rd were STI cases.
Watching all this, it is reassuringly clear that social initiatives can be scaled up professionally, and in a business-like manner.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 24th, 2008 at 4:23 pm and is filed under NGO, Inclusive Growth, Corporate Social Responsibility, On The Road, CSR That Works. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.