By Sean Duggan
I have never met a pharmacist like Shantanu, and over the years at CR I have met a lot of pharmacists.
Most of them were volunteers taking time out from their jobs in the UK and Germany to spend six months or more running the charity’s central pharmacy. They played a key role in CR’s machine, organising the purchase of drugs and its distribution in a timely fashion to the various clinics.
Because CR has lots of patients, many suffering from serious illnesses, there was a lot of medicine involved, with metal chests packed daily and driven out to the clinics. But there haven’t been any volunteer pharmacists since before the pandemic, and Shantanu has been running the show on his own – and doing an outstanding job.
Perhaps because of the type of work they do, most pharmacists tend to be cautious and somewhat reserved, not normally extroverts or natural leaders.
But Shantanu bucks the trend. He is gregarious and self-confident and, having mastered the intricacies of CR’s pharmacy, he demanded more responsibility and so volunteered to run its recently launched Outreach Programme too.
When we meet he talks with enthusiasm and knowledge about his new team and the important work they are doing spreading key health messages about family planning, mother and child health and communicable diseases to slum communities.
And, as if that wasn’t enough to keep him busy, he is doing a diploma in public health and hospital medicine in his spare time. Covid was a massive challenge for him, he says, because the outlets that supplied CR with drugs closed overnight.
India imposed one of the world’s longest lockdowns, so getting medicines out to patients homes was vital. But police roadblocks, the need for official permission, and the long distances involved made this extremely difficult. Shantanu admits that at first the challenges seemed almost insurmountable to him and his team, but somehow they overcame them.
They managed to track down other suppliers and mobilised CR’s drivers to take the drugs out to people across the city and deep into the countryside. “Covid had a big impact, but it helped me to develop myself. Now I tell my team, don’t say no. At first try, then tell me it is not possible.”
Shantanu is one of CR’s rising stars, but it very nearly lost him. He actually left the charity for a few months about five years ago after finding a better paid government job near where he lives.
But after a few weeks he was bored. He said: “I was dealing with 17 drugs compared to 700 with CR.” So he rang Jaydeep and asked to come back. His family tried to dissuade him saying the government job paid more money, was safe and was closer to home, but he was adamant.
He admires Jaydeep and relishes the fact that he is giving him new challenges and opportunities, such as finding the venue for the very successful team building event a few weeks ago and taking part in the complete review of medical services taking place now.
In May he is coming to the UK to attend CR’s International Meeting in Bristol – a recognition of his importance in the organisation.
He has never travelled abroad before and is very excited about the prospect. As a life-long Manchester City fan his dream is to watch a Premier League match live in Britain and, knowing Shantanu, I am pretty sure that is another ambition he is going to achieve.
