The unfortunate tragedy which unfolded in Chhattisgarh has shocked me deeply. It's not that I don't know how these government camps are conducted and what is the situation of sanitation in government-run clinics but I was still shocked by this incident. At least 13 women lost their lives and many more are in critical condition after getting sterilization operations performed in one of the government-run camps. This is not the first time any such mishap happened in government-run camps but I think the loss of lives on such a large scale never happened before. The public health system is in very bad shape in India, a lot of corruption, and lack of accountability plagues this system so much that it is almost dysfunctional. The population control program is part of the health ministry of the central government as well as the state government. Every state sets some targets that it needs to complete to get the required funding which is allocated for that specific purpose and pressure to fulfill those targets can result in horrible incidents like this one where people lose their lives. Lack of transparency, poor follow-up, and inquiry into such incidents allows most culprits to roam free. The system has failed to put any check on the occurrence of such unwanted incidents. Along with people who actually conduct these camps (doctors and medical officers) government machinery and health ministers are equally responsible for these mishaps. Unless all directly and indirectly concerned people are held accountable and punished appropriately I don't think these types of instances will stop.
This is a cruel joke on people and their lives (especially poor and uneducated), they are dragged to these camps with the lure of money or some holiday from their work and doctors casually play with these people's health. Any medical procedure like surgery, especially something like a sterilization operation should not be performed without informed consent. Here word "informed" is more important than consent, it is very easy to get consent from these uneducated poor people who sign any form just in exchange for a few bucks or just because some "educated" person like a doctor is telling them to do so. They think that if some doctor or some respected politician or educated person from their village is telling them to do this thing then it must be good. We can call it consent but it is not informed consent which is a must for any medical procedure like this. The government or any agency can not hide behind the technical rules that we did our job according to rule books and it is people's fault that they go to such camps and die.
Lack of transparency and accountability at every level is a major reason why such incidents keep on happening. This is the same state where ~100 people lost their eyesight after a cataract operation in government camps, and there was no news about what happened to those culprits involved in that incident. These incidents create headlines for few days, and there are attempts to politicize these issues to score some political points but slowly some other issue takes over and people forget about it, in the end nothing substantial happens to put an end to these tragic events. Politicizing any event like this is bad but some political accountability is needed for such incidents. After all, politicians are an important part of the administration that plans and executes such events. They are the people who get the credit for any successful implementation of government schemes, so, they should also get the blame and punishment for such disasters. Normally, only poor and uneducated people are the victims of such events. These are the people who are not active on Facebook, Twitter, or WhatsApp, they are not going to flood social media with their protest posts but they are equally important citizens of India and they need the same treatment that is offered to any citizen from any metro city.
Unless they establish proper mechanisms at every level to make sure that SOP (standard operating procedures) are followed wherever people's health issues are in question we will keep on witnessing such events. Just a resignation or arrest of one doctor or officer is not a solution to this serious problem. We need systematic and administrative reforms if we want to put an end to such incidents. If this incident is not an eye-opener for the people and politicians of India then I am afraid that we are a dead society that doesn't care about the lives of the poor of our society. I hope this incident is the last such incident and necessary steps are taken to avoid such tragedy in the future.
This is a cruel joke on people and their lives (especially poor and uneducated), they are dragged to these camps with the lure of money or some holiday from their work and doctors casually play with these people's health. Any medical procedure like surgery, especially something like a sterilization operation should not be performed without informed consent. Here word "informed" is more important than consent, it is very easy to get consent from these uneducated poor people who sign any form just in exchange for a few bucks or just because some "educated" person like a doctor is telling them to do so. They think that if some doctor or some respected politician or educated person from their village is telling them to do this thing then it must be good. We can call it consent but it is not informed consent which is a must for any medical procedure like this. The government or any agency can not hide behind the technical rules that we did our job according to rule books and it is people's fault that they go to such camps and die.
Lack of transparency and accountability at every level is a major reason why such incidents keep on happening. This is the same state where ~100 people lost their eyesight after a cataract operation in government camps, and there was no news about what happened to those culprits involved in that incident. These incidents create headlines for few days, and there are attempts to politicize these issues to score some political points but slowly some other issue takes over and people forget about it, in the end nothing substantial happens to put an end to these tragic events. Politicizing any event like this is bad but some political accountability is needed for such incidents. After all, politicians are an important part of the administration that plans and executes such events. They are the people who get the credit for any successful implementation of government schemes, so, they should also get the blame and punishment for such disasters. Normally, only poor and uneducated people are the victims of such events. These are the people who are not active on Facebook, Twitter, or WhatsApp, they are not going to flood social media with their protest posts but they are equally important citizens of India and they need the same treatment that is offered to any citizen from any metro city.
Unless they establish proper mechanisms at every level to make sure that SOP (standard operating procedures) are followed wherever people's health issues are in question we will keep on witnessing such events. Just a resignation or arrest of one doctor or officer is not a solution to this serious problem. We need systematic and administrative reforms if we want to put an end to such incidents. If this incident is not an eye-opener for the people and politicians of India then I am afraid that we are a dead society that doesn't care about the lives of the poor of our society. I hope this incident is the last such incident and necessary steps are taken to avoid such tragedy in the future.
Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic.
[Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing]
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sadly so true that humans are least valued in this over populated country of ours...
ReplyDeleteActually it seems like that but any loss of human life like this is extremely sad. I hope that our political and social class becomes more sensitive towards such incident and take every necessary step to put brakes on such incidents. I also hope that it happens sooner than later.
DeleteAll men are equal before the law. But sometimes I wish it was not so. These politicians and government officials hold much more responsible posts and owe a lot to the society. They have a hold over millions. With such great influence over the layman they should be treated differently by law as far as punishment for their misdeeds is concerned. A politician or any other influential person violating the law should get much more severe punishment than an ordinary man committing the same crime. This will at least make sure that some measure of fair treatment and justice is done.
ReplyDeletedr. suhas deai
I agree with you Dr. Suhas that people occupying higher and more responsible post have greater responsibility and should be considered accountable if anything wrong happens. But I dont agree that they should be treated with different set of rules in front of the law. We are still struggling to apply same set of laws to them, they often can misuse the loopholes present in the system and escape or delay he delivery of justice by using same loopholes, if we can stop that then this itself will be a great achievement. Current situation where we see many tainted people getting elected in parliament and becoming law makers is definitely worrisome. How can we expect law breakers (people with serious criminal charges) to have any respect for law? This culture then breeds generation of leaders and politicians who think that they are above law, thy think they can have their own standards of morality and justify their any action. If we can just get rid of these elements from public life then I think at least there might be some accountability, right now accountability and transparency is missing at every level which results in such incidents.
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