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POLITICAL DIARY
Time To Rethink
HOW DO I KNOW IT’S BIRD FLU?
By Poonam I Kaushish
New Delhi, January 29, 2008
Anger and anguish. Despair and desperation. Little did one
know that India would celebrate its 58th Republic Day riding
the crest of these emotions. Forget that India is fast earning
the ignominious title of being the world’s rape capital, that
killing is the rhetoric of the times, what to speak of the
frighteningly ever-widening gap between the filthy rich of
Brand India and the depraved garib of Asli Bharat. Standing
testimony to a callous, heartless and selfish country.
Epitomised by the worst outbreak of bird flu, the third since
2006. This time it has enveloped West Bengal and spread to
neighbouring Bihar, Jharkhand, Meghalaya, Maharashtra and UP.
Even down south Kerala has sounded an alert. “It is horrible,”
confessed the hapless Bengal Animal Resources Minister. Is
this enough? Does it condone and justify the State
Government’s delayed action, bad planning and mismanagement?
Think. From 15 December when it surfaced in Margram village,
in Birbhum district, till date the State Government is still
grappling with the enormity of the crisis and is clueless as
to how to proceed. There is no evidence of civic authorities
and public health officials attempting cleansing operations on
a war-footing. Its culling record of birds is dismal --only
four lakhs out of 20 lakhs. To top it all, villagers continue
to feast on the dead chickens, their children play with the
infected ones and many carry on selling them as it’s a
question of their livelihood. Characterised by “chickens die
of various diseases, how do I know it’s bird flu?”
The end result? Equipment and necessary tools sent by the
Union government to the State to help set up isolation wards,
simply gather dust. No one visited the village till 16
January, a month since its outbreak. And those who did had no
clue what to do as they were not bird flu experts. A majority
of the “health surveyors” were school dropouts with no medical
training or experience. They had no testing equipment, not
even a thermometer! Exposing the tragic fallacy of India.
Spotlighting once again our cavalier and churlish attitude and
approach to a crisis. Not just a crisis of character, but of
crass casualness, which has become the touchstone of our
present-day culture.
Besides, it also demonstrates that the real filth is more
administrative and political. The point is not that just a few
countries have banned Indian poultry and that airlines are no
longer serving chicken but that it highlights the nation’s
inability to manage a crisis, dictated by a ki farak painda
hai attitude. Many of the CPM leaders were busy attending the
Party Conference in Kolkata, rather than overseeing culling
operations in their districts.
Evidently, the administrative system has practically collapsed
a long time ago --- not only in Margram, West Bengal but
almost everywhere. Today, we face an extremely serious
situation, socially and environmentally. There’s a total urban
and rural breakdown, unpaved roads, collapsing sewage and
drainage system and abject poverty. We are at a stage where
another crisis threatens.
Scandalously, the Indian Government spends less than one per
cent of its GDP on public health care. A National Sample
Survey Organisation study of village infrastructure in 2003
found that 54 per cent of villages were more than five km away
from the nearest Primary Health Centre and 27 per cent were
more than 10 km away. Only 10 per cent had a dispensary and
only 20 per cent had a private clinic or a doctor.
According to the WHO, India has a national average of only 45
doctors and 8.9 beds for every 100,000 patients, with the
levels far lower in the poorest States. Add to this the
reputation of having the highest annual death toll due to
tuberculosis, many dying from malaria, dengue and cholera,
preventable and treatable diseases.
The country is ranked 127th out of 177 countries in the Human
Development Index. According to the Arjun Sengupta report 70
per cent of our population survives on less than Rs 20 a day,
living in appalling slum dwellings. Take Maharashtra, India’s
financial capital, which is plagued by lack of water and
electricity. Its rural people live in densely-populated
hamlets in close proximity to fowls and pigs, which they breed
as additional food supplements. There is only one doctor for
28 villages with over 20,000 people. When he is away on call
all is left to God.
Bird flu is only the latest in a series of reversals in public
health hazards. Dengue, chikgunaya, malaria, gastroenteritis
is all around. There is resurgence of Kala Azar and there is
Japanese encephalitis, viral hepatitis and tuberculosis. Child
mortality is on the rise. If a child doesn’t die within five
years from birth due to malnutrition and diarrhea, acute
respiratory infections will get him later.
The Government can no longer bury its head in the sand. People
are sick of hearing the same old refrain: “Don’t panic…The
Government is doing everything that is necessary…things are
improving”. They are tired of their netas going through the
yearly ritual of ‘see-touch-go’ visits, of their State
Governments knocking the door of the Centre for relief, of
money and aid being freely bandied words. Appropriate noises,
hollow concerns and instant remedies are made at crisis time.
Enough to satisfy everyone’s conscience that they have done
their bit for the nation.
Perhaps, it is time for the Government to realise that
economic liberalization without reforms in the social sector
can become a bane. There are no short cuts possible. It is now
imperative that the nation and its netagan rethink strategy
and approach to safeguard public health infrastructure,
establish fresh priorities, improve public hospitals. To
foresee is to govern.
The country’s image cannot be made or unmade by imagery alone.
It is time to change the reality. Economic efficiency, social
well-being, community upliftment are all different by products
of a common collective endeavour. Education and public health
are two other areas which have to be attended to on high
priority if the nation is to accelerate its economic growth.
Ravaged Bengal has exposed the total collapse of the
administrative system and the frailty of our netagan.
Remember, all crises are surmountable. What is insurmountable
is damned casualness. That is the tragedy of the nation.
Resigned to acceptance and lacking the will to fight. How long
can this go on? --- INFA
(Copyright India News & Feature Alliance)
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