From left: Daisy Raj Singh and Dr Neela Bhattacharya at the camp in Hamiltonganj on Sunday; and Pinki Sonkar

Alipurduar, March 30: The Smile Train has finally chugged into the Dooars and the garden workers are grateful to Daisy Raj Singh for having given them a chance to board it.

The wife of the manager of Rydak Tea Estate, Singh has been going around campaigning about the free treatment and surgery for cleft lip that the Smile Train project of the US offers at the Anandaloke Hospital and Neurosciences Centre in Siliguri, 150km from here.

The Smile Train is the NGO that treated Pinki Sonkar — the Uttar Pradesh-based protagonist of Megan Mylan’s Oscar-winning documentary, Smile Pinki — and changed her life.

Singh organised the first free check-up camp for people with cleft lip in September in Rydak. Around 30 people from the BPL category who had registered themselves at the camp, whose expenses were borne by her, have gone through the surgery in Siliguri. But before that, she had a trying time convincing them to attend the camp.

Cleft lip or a cleft palate is a common birth defect in the Dooars especially in the tea belt and is a result of malnutrition, said Dr Neela Bhattacharya who conducts the surgery at Anandaloke. Dr Bhattacharya has been associated with Smile Train for three years.

“Around 300 people from the Dooars have been operated on so far. Many come from the Northeast and Bihar. Cleft lip occurs in children when the mother is deprived of a nutritious diet during pregnancy. Sometimes it is genetic too. But in the Dooars it is mostly because of malnutrition,” said Dr Bhattacharya.

A cleft lip surgery costs at least Rs 20,000.

Added to this is the expense incurred on trips to the hospital. Sometimes one or two family members have to accompany the patients and stay away from home, often in hotels near the hospital.

“For most garden workers, the surgery is beyond their means. But they did not know that they could get it done for free,” said Singh.

When she heard of the Smile-Anandaloke tie-up, Singh contacted Dr Bhattacharya before she did the rounds of the labour lines of the Dooars gardens — Kalchini, Hatiabari, Kohinoor, Mainabari, to name a few. Singh, who has an army background, has been staying in Rydak for 11 years.

She started her campaign with the help of four local boys, going door to door and trying to convince parents to bring the children with cleft lips to free check-up camps as the first step.

“Initially people were reluctant to attend the camps. But then the news spread.” Jashoda Toppo, a 40-year-old worker has been operated upon, as has been Joydeep Das, who is nearly two years old and is from Samuktala. Five-year-old Payel Biswakarma from Turturi, too, has a winning smile now.

On Sunday, Singh organised another such camp at Little Angel School, Hamiltonganj in Kalchini block. Singh is happy that 23 people had registered from different tea gardens for the surgery.

“My reward is the winning smile they give me,” said Singh.