Dominique Lapierre’s decades-long Sunderbans healthcare mission faces shutdown as floating hospitals lose Central and state funding, threatening services for over 1.5 million island residents.
Kolkata: The decades-long healthcare mission envisioned by internationally acclaimed author Dominique Lapierre for the remote islands of the Sunderbans is now on the brink of collapse. From December 1, essential medical services run by the Southern Health Improvement Samity (SHIS) under the City of Joy Foundation may come to a halt, following the discontinuation of funds from both the Central and West Bengal governments.
SHIS Director and noted social worker M.A. Wahab confirmed that the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) stopped the flow of funds to SHIS through the Dominique Lapierre 'City of Joy Foundation' last year without citing specific reasons. For years, the Foundation’s support enabled SHIS to operate floating boat hospitals and island clinics that offered maternal and child healthcare, eye treatment, disability services, neuro, cardiac and orthopedic care, as well as arsenic-free drinking water systems.
The crisis has deepened further with the state government also withdrawing its financial support for key healthcare projects in the Sunderbans. As a result, SHIS has decided to shut down six floating hospitals and seven land-based medical units. More than 1,000 doctors, nurses and healthcare workers have not received their salaries for over a year. “Some doctors and nurses are still working without pay only for the children of the Sunderbans. But the infrastructure is collapsing. Without funds, it is impossible to continue,” Wahab said.
The impact has been devastating in North Bengal as well. SHIS was forced to discontinue its free healthcare programme for tea garden workers months ago due to lack of funds.
Dominique Lapierre, who passed away in 2022, devoted much of his life to humanitarian work in India. His wife and co-founder of the City of Joy Foundation, Dominique Conchon-Lapierre, called the current situation “painful and heartbreaking.” Royalties from Lapierre’s bestselling books, including *City of Joy*, had long sustained the Sunderbans healthcare mission. The floating hospital—one of the mission’s most significant achievements—brought life-saving treatment to the region’s inaccessible, river-locked islands.
Over the past several decades, the combined efforts of SHIS and Lapierre’s foundation rehabilitated nearly 9,000 severely malnourished children affected by leprosy and other diseases, controlled tuberculosis in 1,200 villages, and established 541 tube wells to provide fresh drinking water in the saline-prone region. Lapierre was honoured with the Padma Bhushan in 2008 for his humanitarian contributions.
Now, with funding withdrawn, that humanitarian legacy stands on uncertain ground.
BJP MP and member of the Union Home Ministry, Jyotirmay Singh Mahato, said he was unaware of the funding halt but added, “Once the matter is officially placed before us, it will be forwarded to the Centre.” Meanwhile, sources in the state health department confirmed that SHIS has formally notified the government of its decision to cease operations from December.
With support withdrawn from both the Centre and the state, the fragile healthcare network built painstakingly across 54 riverine islands of the Sunderbans is on the verge of collapse, putting nearly 1.4–1.5 million inhabitants at severe risk.
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| Dominic Lapierre, a writer from the Sundarbans, and M.A. Wahab, director of SHIS. |
Kolkata: The decades-long healthcare mission envisioned by internationally acclaimed author Dominique Lapierre for the remote islands of the Sunderbans is now on the brink of collapse. From December 1, essential medical services run by the Southern Health Improvement Samity (SHIS) under the City of Joy Foundation may come to a halt, following the discontinuation of funds from both the Central and West Bengal governments.
SHIS Director and noted social worker M.A. Wahab confirmed that the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) stopped the flow of funds to SHIS through the Dominique Lapierre 'City of Joy Foundation' last year without citing specific reasons. For years, the Foundation’s support enabled SHIS to operate floating boat hospitals and island clinics that offered maternal and child healthcare, eye treatment, disability services, neuro, cardiac and orthopedic care, as well as arsenic-free drinking water systems.
The crisis has deepened further with the state government also withdrawing its financial support for key healthcare projects in the Sunderbans. As a result, SHIS has decided to shut down six floating hospitals and seven land-based medical units. More than 1,000 doctors, nurses and healthcare workers have not received their salaries for over a year. “Some doctors and nurses are still working without pay only for the children of the Sunderbans. But the infrastructure is collapsing. Without funds, it is impossible to continue,” Wahab said.
The impact has been devastating in North Bengal as well. SHIS was forced to discontinue its free healthcare programme for tea garden workers months ago due to lack of funds.
Dominique Lapierre, who passed away in 2022, devoted much of his life to humanitarian work in India. His wife and co-founder of the City of Joy Foundation, Dominique Conchon-Lapierre, called the current situation “painful and heartbreaking.” Royalties from Lapierre’s bestselling books, including *City of Joy*, had long sustained the Sunderbans healthcare mission. The floating hospital—one of the mission’s most significant achievements—brought life-saving treatment to the region’s inaccessible, river-locked islands.
Over the past several decades, the combined efforts of SHIS and Lapierre’s foundation rehabilitated nearly 9,000 severely malnourished children affected by leprosy and other diseases, controlled tuberculosis in 1,200 villages, and established 541 tube wells to provide fresh drinking water in the saline-prone region. Lapierre was honoured with the Padma Bhushan in 2008 for his humanitarian contributions.
Now, with funding withdrawn, that humanitarian legacy stands on uncertain ground.
BJP MP and member of the Union Home Ministry, Jyotirmay Singh Mahato, said he was unaware of the funding halt but added, “Once the matter is officially placed before us, it will be forwarded to the Centre.” Meanwhile, sources in the state health department confirmed that SHIS has formally notified the government of its decision to cease operations from December.
With support withdrawn from both the Centre and the state, the fragile healthcare network built painstakingly across 54 riverine islands of the Sunderbans is on the verge of collapse, putting nearly 1.4–1.5 million inhabitants at severe risk.
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