RAMBAN, JUNE 04: The strong sense of duty and willingness to help sufferers has prompted Mumtaz Begum, FMPHW at Community Health Centre, Gool to forget her personal problems and filial obligations towards her centenarian bed ridded father.
“As I offered myself to the service of humanity, God is giving me courage to work with full dedication and to come up to the expectations of my department amid the hard times of Covid Pandemic,” she said.
Mumtaz, 40, a mother of three children including a minor son has been assigned the job of vaccination.
Last year she was part of a Covid sampling team and this year she is administering vaccination in the hospital or going door to door to inoculate villagers in remote hilly areas.
In the wake of the sudden surge in the Covid second wave, the staff at the CHC, Gool has been overburdened with the intensified sampling campaign and now-a-days with the aggressive vaccination drive with no time limit of duty.
“This year our Covid duty has been very rigorous as we don’t get any off even on Sunday and holidays. On both the days of this Eid also I was on duty and I had to go to the hospital leaving behind my children and husband alone at home,” said Mumtaz.
“Recruited in 2005, I have never got my salary in time due to problems with the availability of funds. So, many times I face problems in managing daily home needs and fulfilling demands of my children, especially new clothes on Eid (Eid gift),” said Mumtaz.
With her husband, Mohammed Sharief, a small-time shopkeeper in Gool market not doing so well due to the lockdown, has compounded the financial hardships of the family.
Notwithstanding the family problems and financial constraints, she is always at the beck and call of her seniors on Covid duty from 10 am to 4pm.
“For past about a fortnight, I am the only female staff member on vaccination duty as my other colleague has gone on leave after the demise of her mother,” she said.
Mumtaz said that she has not seen her ailing bed ridden centenarian father living in Dharmari area of adjoining district for the last several months. She had met him in a Jammu hospital last year when he had got seriously ill.
She expressed gratitude to her seniors especially the BMO, Gool, Dr. Bashir Ahmed, who have always been considerate and caring in not only providing her all safety equipment like PPE, masks, sanitizers, gloves, goggles etc but also not assigning night duty.
“My three children are in formative years of their career; the eldest daughter is in BA, another daughter is studying in 12th and the son is studying in 10th class. And like my other friends I wanted to avail the Child Care Leave so that I could give them enough time to concentrate on their studies, but instead they have to devote time doing domestic chores along with my husband, while I am on duty on all days,” she said.
Praising her devotion towards duty, BMO, Gool, Dr. Bashir Ahmed said,” she always rushes to the hospital whenever called and never frown in disgust or make any lame excuse.” (KDC)
