This May, in Maharashtra’s Marathwada region, a young Saurabh Mali, aged 21, was offered a contractual job as a ward boy in Osmanabad Civil...
This May, in Maharashtra’s Marathwada region, a young Saurabh Mali, aged 21, was offered a contractual job as a ward boy in Osmanabad Civil Hospital after his father, who used to work in the same hospital, succumbed to Covid-19.
Mali was pursuing a Bachelors in Science, but decided to drop out and work to support his family. Within days, he was asked to man the hospital’s newly installed pressure swing adsorption plant, an oxygen generator that absorbs atmospheric air and extracts oxygen for medical use.
He had never seen such equipment before. Every once in a few days, a tiny fault in the plant left him floundering and he would end up calling officials at the company that had manufactured it to seek their help. “I don’t understand the internal working of the system,” he said.
Fifty kms from Osmanabad, Vitthal Koli used to sweep and mop the ward floor in the Murud rural hospital in Latur district. He was made in-charge of operating the PSA plant. In the fortnight following its installation, Koli could not switch on the compressor and ended up calling the company technician once.
“If lucky, these faults are resolved over a video call,” he said. If not, a company technician has to drive...
