Priorities!
While the union health ministry continues to deliberate whether it is an epidemic or not, few more corpses gets added to the growing count every day. A stroll in the park may not reflect the true merit, but in how we jockey ourselves under moments of adversities. All we could see is utter pandemonium in the nation's hospitals in the crisis fabricated by the mosquitoes. People sleeping on the floors and corridors, sharing their beds with others and the nation’s health infrastructure is put to task the past few weeks. To the utter dismay, this is the scene in one of the most premium hospitals in the nation's capital, not in a remote nook of the country.
I recently read somewhere that nearly 75% of our health infrastructure is concentrated in urban areas where 27% of our population lives. If, all 75% of our health infrastructure could give is such scenes of gross dis-orderliness and confusion, it is just mind boggling what it would take to give decent healthcare benefit to the entire nation. While we try to take comfort under a perceived 9-10% growth rate, remodeling our airports and infrastructure, national crisis like this dengue outbreak just puts things in the right perspective in terms of priorities, when all we could see is the government health machinery in complete chaos putting in reality an almost non-existent crisis management system. It is time for all of us to put ourselves in front of the mirror and question the credibility of our economic prowess; if there is such! On the one side we claim to have made tremendous progress in the area of science and technology and on the other side we account for the largest count of illiterates and mal-nourished children and people affected by infectious diseases. It is such a common sight in all the metros to have dazzling five-star hotels and IT parks besides the dirtiest slums and waterways in the country. It is amazing to see people spend thousands to live in sprawling residential complexes near dump-yards and waterways infested with the deadliest of mosquitoes. If contagious, infectious and water-borne diseases are so much rampant in the rural areas and the scene in any metro is no different. Disasters keep adding to our jargon – how many people had heard about Tsunami before it wrecked havoc couple of years back. Chikungunya – people initially thought it was a disease that afflict the chickens, soon came to terms with the pain and the mosquitoes that spread those menace as well. The disease left no one – from the working class to the elite – anyone who can be bitten fell in its wrath.
I recently read somewhere that nearly 75% of our health infrastructure is concentrated in urban areas where 27% of our population lives. If, all 75% of our health infrastructure could give is such scenes of gross dis-orderliness and confusion, it is just mind boggling what it would take to give decent healthcare benefit to the entire nation. While we try to take comfort under a perceived 9-10% growth rate, remodeling our airports and infrastructure, national crisis like this dengue outbreak just puts things in the right perspective in terms of priorities, when all we could see is the government health machinery in complete chaos putting in reality an almost non-existent crisis management system. It is time for all of us to put ourselves in front of the mirror and question the credibility of our economic prowess; if there is such! On the one side we claim to have made tremendous progress in the area of science and technology and on the other side we account for the largest count of illiterates and mal-nourished children and people affected by infectious diseases. It is such a common sight in all the metros to have dazzling five-star hotels and IT parks besides the dirtiest slums and waterways in the country. It is amazing to see people spend thousands to live in sprawling residential complexes near dump-yards and waterways infested with the deadliest of mosquitoes. If contagious, infectious and water-borne diseases are so much rampant in the rural areas and the scene in any metro is no different. Disasters keep adding to our jargon – how many people had heard about Tsunami before it wrecked havoc couple of years back. Chikungunya – people initially thought it was a disease that afflict the chickens, soon came to terms with the pain and the mosquitoes that spread those menace as well. The disease left no one – from the working class to the elite – anyone who can be bitten fell in its wrath.
In a democracy, it is the state’s responsibility to ensure adequate public expenditure is on health care system, sanitation and clean drinking water. Despite several growth-orientated policies adopted by the government and while the total government expenditure continues to rise, there has been an unfortunate decline on the spending on the social sector. Last union budget saw the defence allocation increased to a whopping 83,000 crores of rupees while a miniscule of the total GDP got allotted to manage the healthcare needs of a nation of more than a billion. Not that we need to go lite on needs of strategic importance, but the billions that are being wasted in the various scams in arms procurement and the public money that gets burnt in the number of fighter planes that crash these days and the billions that is spent in procuring a refurbished aircraft carrier while majority of the nation languish on basic necessities of sanitation and clean drinking water. Least to mention that each fighter plane can provide real coverage to hundreds of villages from the real threat of mosquitoes, instead of the perceived threat from our enemies wherever they may come from.
A nation where the cricket news tops the headlines in all the news networks and an anjelina jolie, brad pitt visit gets debated at prime time TV, it is high time we shift our focus towards more basic needs that would question our very survival. Needs of rural health care and a sincere effort to bring the poorest of the nation's population under the radar of national fiscal policies are the need of the hour. But, this requires people with vision to break the norms and set the priorities right. A health minister who rather prefers to set straight personal scores against people in his own backyard, fends his way towards the pesti-colass and questions the very basis of a scientific study that criticised the efficacy of the cola giants. While one half of our society keeps guzzling aerated beverages, the other has to satisfy with palm-full of muddied water.
At some point of time, we need to get our priorities right.
A nation where the cricket news tops the headlines in all the news networks and an anjelina jolie, brad pitt visit gets debated at prime time TV, it is high time we shift our focus towards more basic needs that would question our very survival. Needs of rural health care and a sincere effort to bring the poorest of the nation's population under the radar of national fiscal policies are the need of the hour. But, this requires people with vision to break the norms and set the priorities right. A health minister who rather prefers to set straight personal scores against people in his own backyard, fends his way towards the pesti-colass and questions the very basis of a scientific study that criticised the efficacy of the cola giants. While one half of our society keeps guzzling aerated beverages, the other has to satisfy with palm-full of muddied water.
At some point of time, we need to get our priorities right.
