Bhargava, Anurag2019-09-252019-09-252011-03-162009-040975-5691http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12424/177044"“What is the catchment area of your hospital?” the wellmeaning person from the funding agency asked. I responded with our oft-quoted figure of people from over 1,500 villages coming to us for healthcare, including many from the adjoining parts of Madhya Pradesh. But what I did not tell him then were the life experiences of some people from these villages in an era where all aspects of rural life seem to be in a crisis. As the harvest season of the single rain-fed crop draws to a close, and no other employment is in sight, an annual exodus begins that is all too visible at bus stops, railway platforms, and in the general compartments of trains bound for Delhi, Punjab, Gujarat, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. The migration, to which according to some administrators the people of these parts are habituated, has begun. And as the monsoons draw closer, the return journey home begins. For many, however, the work so far away is interrupted by what is unexpected for the well-to-do, but always close at hand for the poor- illness, and very often, a serious illnessengWith permission of the license/copyright holdermigrationmedical lawBioethicsMedical ethicsHealth ethicsArticle