DELHI Sangeeta Kampani: This
refers to your cover story AES: Hidden
Epidemic (July 8). The picture of Sri
Krishna Medical College and Hospital
in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur is worth a
thousand words. It has a vocabulary
neglect and colossal deprivation that
words may be inadequate to convey.
At 1.4 per cent of the GDP, our health
care spend is ridiculously low. More
over, health is not about hospitals
alone. It is also about a wholesome
package of clean air, drinking water,
sanitation and nutrition. We have
to figure out that we are sitting on
a crisis and our services are function
ing beyond full capacity. Until we
make systemic and imaginative
changes, a Muzaffarpur is waiting to
happen every other day. Augmenting
healthcare with paramedical staff for a
wider reach in terms of availability of
personnel and health edu cation could
take the pressure off the big hospitals.
A wellequipped primary healthcare
system can help us focus on public
health better than hospitalcentric
solutions. The idea is to minimise the
need to go to a hospital and to get the
most out of it in case one has to.DEHRADUN Rakesh Agrawal: This
hidden epidemic is not so hidden, after
all, as about 200 children have died at
the altar of carelessness and ignorance
in Muzaffarpur, Bihar, is symptomatic
of a larger disease that has engulfed
India for decades—the scant regard
of successive governments for public
health and education. India spends
just a little over one per cent of its
GDP on public health, far below most
developed and less developed coun
tries. This forces people into the
clutches of the exorbitant private
healthcare system, which drains them
of their hardearned income. In fact, a
recent report says that Indians spend67.78 per cent of their health expenses
from their own pocket, against a global
average of 18.2 per cent. The Narendra
Modi government talks big, selling the
dream of Ayushman Bharat, but a
cursory look at the budgetary alloca
tion—Rs 52,800 crore for health in
201819, merely 5 per cent higher than
the revised estimate of Rs 50,079.
crore for 201718, and 2.1 per cent of
the Union Budget, lowered from the
2.4 per cent in 201718—shows it is all
just so much hot air. The situation is
even more pathetic at the state level
as in Bihar, the centre of this epidemic,
where the public expenditure on
health is just Rs 348 per person
annually, while the national average
is Rs 748. Hence, if the health policy
is not turned upside down, the poor,
deprived and disenfranchised people
will keep being dumped at thirdrate
public hospitals like animals and their
kids will keep on dying year after year
without shocking anyone.KOCHI George Jacob: Strange and
hitherto unheard of infectious diseases
have been holding India and her
medical community to ransom of late.
It was the Nipah viral infection that
had Kerala by the scruff in May 2018.
Recently, it was Muzaffarpur’s turn to
dance to the death tune of a suppos
edly highly infectious encephalitic
entity. Probably, Muzaffarpur can take
a leaf out of Kerala’s success story
in getting the better of Nipah infection,
about which the latter had the slightest
inkling at the outset.BANGALORE K.S. Jayatheertha:
Poverty, malnutrition, unhygienic liv
ing conditions, unavailability of quality
treatment and the apathy of the govern
ment are the main causes of the deaths
in Bihar. A solution is not very difficult
if the government is willing to devote
resources for it. But the recurrence
of tragedies of such magnitude never
disturbs the ruling dispensation. That
things were no better in Bihar before
Nitish Kumar took over is wellknown,
yet there is no denying that the condi
tions have gone from bad to worse.
Medical colleges and hospitals are also
illequipped to deal with the outbreak
of such epidemics. Routine compensa
tion will not bring back the children.The Moulvi Hustle
BANGALORE H.N.Ramakrishna:
This refers to The Hen Faked Gold (July
8), Karnataka’s version of Bengal’s
Saradha scam. I understand that
Mohammad Mansoor Khan, promoter
of IMA Group of Companies, used his
political clout to rope in local moulvis
to issue fatwas in favour of inv esting
in IMA. In turn, they got funds for their
madrasas. Actually the scam was an
open secret, but fearing the nexus and
the backlash from Muslims during elec
tions, nobody tried to blow the lid.letters
The System Kills. Fix It!
MALAPPUR AM (KER ALA) Indira KrishnakumarBureaucracy can’t be blamed for our problems when politicians always pick their favourites.
one-liner4 OUTLOOK 22 July 2019
July 8, 2019