Governments of the centre and states should ensure that Bihar tragedy is not allowed to reoccur in the near future

Our fortune makers i.e. our politicians, bureaucrats and the decision makers  talk so much and so high about improving the health of the nation’s citizens particularly the children and the women who are the vulnerables.

Incessant assurances are made by those in power about strong, cohesive, self reliant, economically independent and prosperous India, but what happened in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur and several other parts last week when about 124 children died of encephalitis for want of adequate treatment, medicines and medical care hangs are head in shame.

The tragic incident of 128 deaths and several other in the pipeline has degraded India’s image and reputation not inly in Bihar, the country but abroad as well where newspaper headlines vreated sham for India and its ruling government.

Had such dreaded deaths in such a large numbers been in any developed country above as was in Bihar, India last week and in Uttar Pradesh a year ago governments wpuld have changed due to national outrage but shamefully it never happens in India as peoples’ lives and lives of the poor children hold no relevance and value in Indian society.

There had been no remorse at the national level except media hype and trading of charges by political parties against each other in well designed television channels’ debate for days together.

There were no severe penalisation of the erring senior bureaucrats who finally covered the entire episode. The poor, hapless and the economically deprived sections of the society living in distant villages in various states of the country are doomed for such disaters with no ray of hope in sight.

The chief minister of Bihar Nitish Kumar who visited the Muzaffarpur hospital after 18 days of this mishappening have been winning in Bihar for the second time compounded with his maximum MPs winning in the general elections as well but the extremely pitiable and sorry state of the hospitals and primary health centres leading to the tragic death of 128 children has vindicated the hard fact that the Bihar government has literally failed on the health front thus down grading the image and reputation of the country in the eyes of world nations especially when we talk so much of making high and revolutionery strides in the International diplomacy.

Sounds shocking indeed.

The conditions of the government hospitals of Bihar with open filthy drains just lying adjacent to hospital buildings, non availability of beds, unhygienic beds, patients lying on the floors with dirty floors emitting bad and foul smell, patient being served rotten and unhygienic food, doctors unavailable and medicines disappeared from hospitals being sold in black in open market through private chemists.

Had the previous government of BJP led NDA part 1 emphatically concentrated its efforts on improvising the health services and conditions of hospitals and primary health centres in the country the aweful and grief stricken Bihar situation would not have arrived.

The union health minister Harsh Vardhan in whose presence an ailing child had died had visited this hospital in Muzagfarnagar in the past too and had promised to improve the conditions of hospitals in Bihar and increasing the beds but of no avail.

He never returned back thereafter but to see the children dying of encephalitis in extreme unhygienic conditions of the hospitals and complete lack of medical care.

The progress and development of any nation rests on the good health of its citizens, especially the children.

Education comes there after and then anything else. But in India unfortunately despite the tall talks of construction of so many AIIMS hospitals the condition of primary health centres and district as well as town hospitals run by the government are in extreme jeopardy and doll drums. It is undoubtedly appreciablethat the government led by Narendra Modi has allocated a whopping budget of Rs  61, 398 crores for the health sector with more than Rs 6000 crores for Ayushman bharat Insurance and mediclaim schemes for the poor of the country but it would be considered as futile unless it justifiably reaches the lowest echelons of the society to improvise health facilities in government hospitals for the good of the poor, hapless and the marginally deprived sections of the society.

The tragic and most shocking incident of 128 deaths of the children of Bihar is an eye opener for the second term elected BJP led NDA government warranting the prime minister to prioritise his agend of concentrating himself to fine tune the health sector of the country in order to ensure that such tragedies do not reoccur in the near future. What’s your take friends?