Property of Dr Kiran Kumbhar

ELECTION TIME: RAM MANDIRS OR AAROGYA MANDIRS?

India and its people regularly baffle rationale. The massive contradictions and hypocrisies of our nation are never more dazzlingly on display than during elections. When ideally people and politicians should be prioritizing vital, basic issues like education, healthcare and agriculture, it is religion, region, caste and each others defamation that they are more obsessed with. Somebody has rightly said that a nation gets the type of leaders it deserves ! our indifferent, "ingoistic and greedy leaders being an obvious and accurate reflection of the ma"or part of our general populace. In such a scenario when a popular T# show is provocatively titled Does Healthcare Need Healing but focuses on very limited aspects of the comple$ issue, and when people and politicians resort to blaming "ust healthcare personnel for the evils in health systems, an ordinary doctor cant but feel tormenting pain and betrayal. %specially because most of the crises that plague Indian healthcare, "ust like every other sector and every other aspect of Indian life, indeed owe their provenance to that awful nefarious pair of politician avarice and public apathy. While it is true that not all doctors and health workers work honestly and with good moral standards, this cannot be stretched to mean that once we get rid of those bad eggs, public health and patient services will improve dramatically. It is tremendously dismal &and embarrassing for many of us' that there e$ist doctors who engage in such hideous activities like illegal organ trade, corruption in medical reports and certificates, etc. (ut what is conveniently forgotten as regards these medical malpractices is that they are not solely medical) it is not something that doctors are doing for doctors. The beneficiaries of these shady activities are almost always ordinary people and politicians*bureaucrats &making them medico+social malpractices'. It is the parents of a female fetus who tell a doctor to abort it, it is patients who re,uest*threaten a doctor to modify medical reports, and it is politicians who, well, force a doctor to do absolutely any outrageous thing they desire. (ad eggs, whether in the medical sector or elsewhere, are never going to permanently go away- but their negative impacts can be greatly reduced by good systems, something for which politicians,

Property of Dr Kiran Kumbhar

bureaucrats, police, doctors, advocates and "udges all are responsible. Thus branding these problems as only .of doctors. is hugely erroneous and takes the focus away from viable solutions ! solutions which should ideally feature prominently in election rallies. It is alarming how in "ust /0 years, which comprise a mere one+hundredth time period of Indias 1000+year old history, a very tiny class of people ! politicians and bureaucrats &barring some truly e$emplary ones of course' ! has brought our mighty nation, a nation of abundant riches, to an abysmally hopeless and impoverished state. This 2amning 2uo was kind enough to not let even the healthcare sector feel left out in its e$ercise of bludgeoning all public institutions committed to doing public good. 3eople generally blame health workers for the sorry state of the health system, but it is actually this duo that has the power to enhance or ravage it. 4iting lame e$cuses like lack of funding and resources, the govt has kept our public health system in a permanent state of coma, the recent fiasco concerning the 456S scheme being a beautiful e$ample. If the duo had been honest and good+intentioned in the last /0 years, we would now have had some of the best public hospitals in the world, with more than ade,uate facilities and health workers to look after patients. 3itiably, people dont seem to realize that the most important reason they have to visit private hospitals and burn huge holes in their pockets is that their elected leaders are perennially busy self+pocketing all the money intended for their ! the publics ! health. 7lready the government shares "ust 809 of Indian peoples total health spending &4hina 1/, :; <8, world average around /1', and still with much of that money being invariably embezzled by this greedy duo, what remains for the general populace is most aptly described by comedian ;apil Sharma.s highly popular phrase. (ut then, all of this blatant loot and in"ustice never bothered us being too busy as we were in rioting, killing our own countrymen for flimsy reasons, and foolishly hankering after politicians who mesmerized us with their belligerent promises. So we arrive at the last contributors to Indias healthcare problems) We the &apathetic' 3eople. The most that the highly vigilant Indian public has contributed to healthcare is by teaching lessons to helpless doctors via

Property of Dr Kiran Kumbhar

spontaneous beating and &at times' molesting demonstrations. In the land which gave birth to tolerant 6induism and pacifist (uddhism, brutality is the primary solution to problems. Scapegoating and censure are the ne$t options, accounting for the routine public criticism of doctors who protest against govt atrocities. =ther less glamorous solutions are obviously never worth giving a shot) confronting politicians over why they never give priority to health issues, panning them for inoculating their pet, domestic virus of corruption in the fragile healthcare system, showing vibrant health activism through demonstrations, honest "ournalism, and public awareness, or even "ust displaying solidarity with troubled health workers when they need support during their protests and strikes. =ne seriously wonders why the supremely important issue of health is not so dear to the Indian public as are caprice+prone and ultimately destructive issues of caste, regional and religious identities. The terrible spectacle of the (abri >as"id demolition immediately comes before ones eyes, and one imagines in half+"est how it would have been had some sane politicians whipped up public discontent over lack of basic amenities &rather than a perceived lack of religious hegemony' and led the demolition of say, "ust for symbolisms sake, one of our countless dysfunctional public hospitals. It.s agonizing that even during the present elections healthcare is being sorely ignored by politicians, media and the public. Some are talking of development politics, but without any mention of improving healthcare &flushing out its corruption, upgrading and multiplying govt hospitals, increasing the number of specialists, providing proper health insurance to people' it is useless because, to ,uote 7martya Sen, healthcare is not something that is supported by economic growth but is something that supports economic growth. :nless and until health issues &and other vital ones like education' do not totally supersede our regular dangerous and divisive issues, in both national consciousness and national media, it is impossible to deliver this nation out of its continuing crises.