Alumni Mentorship Congress: 4th Edition, Session 6
On 24 April 2024, Dr. Chinmay Oak, an alumnus of our college from the 2004-09 batch visited the college to delivered a lecture on topic “Rural Dentistry: Gandhian Philosophy to Capitalist Opportunity”. The objective of the session was to provide a platform for the alumni mentors to speak about their journey and student mentees to interact, learn, imbibe and be inspired by these journeys. Dr.Chinmay Oak was the first one from our college to join TISS for an MPH in Health Policy, Economics and Finance. After working on various projects and working for a while as a consultant, he has finally settled down in his private practice at his native place at Roha where he also is an educator, conducting classes for NEET.
He had collected all the statistics of the patient-dentist ratio, right from WHO recommendations to our national ratio, the ratio in Maharashtra and how it varies in urban and rural areas. His talk started with how practicing rural dentistry was a Gandhian Philosophy and how in the current times it is also a capitalist opportunity. He did not hide the fact that it is easier said than done, he spoke about the challenges from lack of facilities, technical support, sources of entertainment, frequency of power-cuts, water scarcity and a lot more. But he also emphasized on the many positives like a stress-free life devoid of many of the challenges in an urban practice like unhealthy competition, pollution, travel time, high rentals, increased cost of living, etc.
Session was attended by final Year students, interns and staff.The session was an eye-opener for the interns many of who will be looking to start their private practice eventually. It also gave the final year students an insight into the various aspects to keep in mind in the future.
