DR. ASHISH Satav always knew he wanted to serve the most downtrodden and underprivileged in India. It was a purpose that appeared in his mind when he was a 7th grade school student and continued until he impacted the lives of 1 million tribal people in the forests of Melghat who had no medical care until he arrived – and he is still going strong. Dr. Ashish Satav and his wife Dr. Kavita Satav dedicated their lives and careers to serving people in the remote Melghat area who suffer from preventable conditions and diseases due to an absence of doctors and hospitals in their area.
Dr. Ashish Satav and Dr. Kavita Satav founded Mahan Trust and started serving the deprived tribal communities of Melghat through medical examinations, screenings, diagnoses and surgeries for children and adults in the area. In the first few months, Drs. Ashish and Kavita struggled without the tools and resources to bring the medical care that the people needed but with the support of people helping Mahan Trust, the couple were able to provide critical care to tribals who had no access to medical facilities. Founded in 1997, Mahan Trust has grown from a small makeshift medical center in a straw hut to being a fully-functional multispeciality hospital addressing needs from malnutrition to child deaths.
Our team visited Dr. Ashish Satav in 2024 and witnessed the impact of his selfless work over the decades. In this short video, he explains the suffering of the tribal people in Melghat and how Mahan Trust has changed their lives:
The vision of a 7th grader
Dr. Ashish Satav was inspired by his grandfather Vasantrao Bombatkar who was committed to doing what he could to ensure progress for all humankind. The heart of service, therefore, was instilled in him as a child. Just a seventh grader at the time, Dr. Ashish Satav decided that the best way he could serve humankind was to become a doctor. He read The Story of My Experiments with Truth by Mahatma Gandhi and the line that read that the “real India is in its villages, so you must go to the villages to serve India” spoke to his heart. He wanted to serve the most downtrodden with their health needs and the teachings in Mahatma Gandhi’s book was the impetus to go to medical school and serve people in rural India.
Traveling into rural India as a medical college student
In medical school, Dr. Ashish Satav had the opportunity to achieve his dream of going to rural India to serve people from underprivileged communities with expert medical care. He began by going to tribal areas like Melghat and Gadchiroli where people like Dr. Abhay Bhang and Dr. Prakash Amte also worked. It was when he was in Melghat that he realized that the absolute absence of critical medical care for the tribal people was worsening their lives, reducing their lifespan and causing untold suffering. Melghat had no medical facilities for around 150 km and there was only one road that traversed forested areas and water bodies. That single road carried just one bus in between Melghat and the nearest populated area. Needless to say, the area was cut off from all access to the outside world – including doctors, medicines, hospitals and surgical facilities.
Doctor of Medicine and Mahan Trust
Dr. Ashish Satav earned his Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) and founded Mahan Trust in 1995 along with his wife Dr. Kavita Satav, whose commitment to serving the poor tribals of Melghat matched his own. Once, when Dr. Kavita Satav was in Melghat, a tiger attacked one of the villages. Since there was no way for Dr. Kavita to get back home, she spent the night in the village but was awakened in the middle of the night by the crushing feeling of an animal’s feet on her abdomen. It turned out to be another animal and not the tiger that everyone had everyone on edge. But Dr. Kavita was not afraid of being in Melghat and continued to return to the village to care for the people.
His wife Dr. Kavita Satav would often tie up a saree to a tree to make a cloth cradle where their son Athang would sleep while Dr. Kavita would treat patients, conduct surgeries, cook for them and speak to them about their lives, lifestyles and ailments. Dr. Ashish Satav’s entire family has dedicated their lives to serving the people of Melghat.
Drs. Ashish and Kavita Satav started their medical practice in Melghat out of a small thatched roof bamboo hut where they conducted advanced surgeries for people who had no other doctor to help them with their ailments. In interacting with the men, women and children of the tribal areas, they discovered that the villagers could not even afford two proper meals or stop their work to travel more than 150 km for medical treatment. Even if they could get permission to leave the village for medical treatment, they would not be able to afford it. Dr. Ashish once met the mother of a little baby who was sick. The mother told him that she had no choice but to let her baby die instead of leaving the village to get medical treatment. The reason? Because she would have to leave her three other children behind with no one to care for them. “Had our hospital not been there,” Dr. Ashish shares, “countless people would have lost their lives to treatable diseases”.
The impact of 27 years of medical care
In almost 30 years of bringing medical care to the tribal villagers of Melghat, Mahan Trust has built a fully-functional hospital called the Mahatma Gandhi Tribal Hospital that has an inpatient and outpatient department, operation theater and critical care unit. The NGO also conducts medical camps focusing on Gynecology and Obstetrics, Pediatrics, Ophthalmology, ENT, Pathology, de-addiction, Tuberculosis and surgical camps. Dr. Ashish Satav and his team at Mahan Trust has impacted the lives of 1 million people and:
- treated more than 1,25,000 people
- reduced the child mortality rate by 68%
- reduced the the malnutrition rate by 75%
- reduced the adult death rate by 50%
- restored the vision of 30,000 people
- developed 7,000 kitchen gardens and nutrition farms
- Influenced 30 state policies
Dr. Ashish Satav and Dr. Kavita Satav believe in engaging with the local communities to make a sustainable and long-term impact in their lives. Mahan Trust:
- trains tribal women to treat children under the age of 5 suffering from respiratory infections, diarrhea, malaria, malnutrition, neonatal sepsis and birth asphyxia
- trains tribal women in identifying the signs of Tuberculosis, hypertension, pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria and heart attacks
- tests people’s eyes and provides treatment, eyeglasses and surgeries
- runs a counselor program to reduce child and maternal deaths
- runs a de-addiction program called Umang for alcohol/substance abuse
- operates a hospice called Shanti Nilayam with 24-hour care
Support Mahan Trust
Dr. Ashish Satav and his team at Mahan Trust is committed to serving the tribal people of Melghat and other areas, but he needs your support to continue to bring medical care to those who would otherwise suffer or have their lives cut short because of preventable and treatable illnesses and diseases. To support Mahan Trust, you can donate here:
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Shirley has been in the development sector for over 10 years and is passionate about making a change in the world around her, including adopting dogs and writing to make a difference.
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