Dr. Utkarsh Saxena trained as a dental surgeon. Now, he walks dirt tracks and crosses rivers in Khargone district, Madhya Pradesh, working with frontline workers and government counterparts to keep newborns alive through their first weeks of life, and to identify, manage, and refer high-risk pregnant women to the care they need.

He grew up in Bhopal and completed his Bachelor of Dental Surgery there. A conversation with a senior in his final year of dental school changed his thinking: not how to heal, but how to get healing to those who need it most. That question led him through an MBA in Hospital and Health Management at The IIHMR University, Jaipur, a year of research with Madhya Pradesh’s Health Resource Center, a short spell in insurance claims in Mumbai, two years running primary healthcare with the National Health Mission in Sehore district at the district level, and, two and a half years ago, to The Antara Foundation (TAF), where he serves as a Program Officer for Training and Implementation. His family had paid for his dental education, and they needed some convincing. Today, he says, they are proud that his work helps save lives.

Alongside the Block Medical Officer, Dr. Utkarsh Saxena leads a block-level review meeting , with block officials, frontline health workers, and TAF staff.

No two days are identical, though most share the rhythm of a morning team meeting to set priorities before Utkarsh heads to the field, often to monitor a Village Health, Sanitation, and Nutrition Day. He checks the essentials: seating, due lists, unexpired vaccines in stock, and whether the community has shown up at all. He watches an auxiliary nurse midwife (ANM) give a vaccine, listening for whether counseling is effective. Lunch is fifteen minutes in a moving car. Afternoons are for home visits, including one to a low-birth-weight infant. An anxious ASHA accompanies him, and Utkarsh is there to support her.

Home visits with newborns stay with him most, he says. A newborn weighing barely 1,200 grams refused breast milk; his family fed him cow’s milk instead. Fearing the cost, they resisted hospital care until counseling changed their minds. Referred in time to the Special Newborn Care Unit, the infant came home stronger. Another newborn had a hemangioma spreading toward his eye. His family had been treating it at home with hot leaves before Utkarsh found him on a routine visit. After counseling, they agreed to a referral, and treatment began. The mark is now fading, and with it, the risk to his eyesight. “My core intention was to contribute to healthcare service delivery, whether clinically or non-clinically,” Utkarsh says. Cases like these, he adds, make that intention feel real. to his eyesight. “My core intention was to contribute to healthcare service delivery, whether clinically or non-clinically,” Utkarsh says. Cases like these, he adds, make that intention feel real.

None of it comes easily. In parts of Khargone, reaching a single high-risk case can mean walking two to three kilometers one way, over roads and rivers. It takes patience and empathy to gently correct an experienced ASHA who missed a step or to earn the trust of a Block Medical Officer who was once wary of NGOs and now often joins Utkarsh on field visits.

Utkarsh joins the Block Community Mobilizer on a field visit to a AAA (Anganwadi, ANM, ASHA) meeting, where frontline workers coordinate care and plan community outreach.

Ask what he’s proudest of, and Utkarsh does not name one dramatic case. Instead, he highlights the slower, steadier change he sees in his block: sharper knowledge among frontline workers, higher-quality home visits, stronger review meetings, and closer coordination among them. The numbers support this. In his block, where Utkarsh works alongside frontline health workers day after day, he reports that early antenatal registration has surged, along with a marked drop in infant and neonatal mortality. Behind each number are a thousand small decisions, made on foot, one case at a time.

Dr. Utkarsh Saxena is a Program Officer with The Antara Foundation, based in Khargone district, Madhya Pradesh.

Tarini Mohan is a Strategic Advisor at The Antara Foundation, based in New Delhi. She is also the author of ‘Lifequake’, published by Juggernaut Books in 2025.