Institute of Child Health, Kolkata, was the dream project of late Dr. K C Chaudhuri, the doyen of pediatrics in India, when pediatrics was not considered a separate specialty. His effort got the due recognition, when the Prime Minister of India, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru inaugurated this Institute in 1956. Subsequently, several other stalwarts Dr. Sisir Kumar Bose, Dr. S P Ghoshal, Dr. U C Chakraborty (father of Pediatric Surgery in India) and many others dedicated their careers to this hospital without any reciprocation, to serve the less privileged sections of the society at minimal cost and provide them with quality medical care.

In 60 years, the Institute has evolved into a prime pediatric hospital with referral from within and outside of the state. The hospital provides service to the lower middle class group with minimal cost or even free of cost. With the dynamic change in the socioeconomic status of our country, the awareness of disease management has increased the need of state of art therapy for the underprivileged population to look for a better outcome for both morbidity and mortality. The dedicated team of professionals in all specialty and superspeciality who had been serving the institute felt the need for this upgraded facility and with effort of all we could motivate generous donors in all sectors from the corporate, individuals, NGOs etc to support for the cause.

This has helped the hospital to expand over the years and has been equipped with various superspeciality services like surgery, neurology, nephrology, respiratory medicine, gastroenterology, rheumatology, haemato-oncology, endocrinology, skin, neurodevelopment, and others. At present, about 80 pediatricians and specialists are attached to this hospital. The tradition of providing voluntary services is still in vogue which has been initiated 60 years back. But the targeted expansion has been crippled by the infrastructure which is out of date. There is a need to have a modern hospital with vision towards the future. A well laid down planned superstructure with multidisciplinary approach in a patient friendly manner is the need of the hour. A dedicated nursing college is also needed to train and equip nurses in this evolving field of medicine with special focus on childcare.