Most of the Nimtala Clinic patients live on the street, so keeping in touch with them is a challenge at the best of times – let alone during the Covid-19 lockdown.

Asif Ahamed, the clinic supervisor, has taken on this demanding role. The fact that It takes him more than 3 hours for him to get there by train and 3 hours more to go back home.

Due to the lockdown, he has been forced to work from home and can only check on his patients by mobile phone.

Asif calls all the patients who have a mobile phone and asks about their health, if they are taking medicines regularly, how their families are etc. If any patient has any health-related issues that need the advice of a doctor, Asif talks to the clinic doctors on phone and then relays their advice back to the patient.

Many pavement dwellers don’t have a mobile number – including some of the clinic’s patients. For these people will call someone he knows who lives nearby and ask them to check up on them.

Asif said: “Many patients are anxious due to lockdown. Some ask when the clinic will open, some ask how to get medicines if they ran out of them. I try to help them as much as I can.”