- Undeniably, the Indian healthcare infrastructure is inadequate at the best of times to meet the burgeoning requirements of the population. Don’t think anybody in their right senses will dispute this fact. This particular lacuna stood starkly exposed during the devastating pandemic, especially when the second wave ravaged the country mercilessly. People queuing up for beds, oxygen, and ambulances are visuals that can never be forgotten or consigned to dustbins as a matter of routine. The central and state governments had to spruce up the almost moribund public healthcare infrastructure on a war footing to supplement the private healthcare back then.
PC: GIRDHAR GYANI
- Now, how many of our population can afford to seek private healthcare treatments which doesn’t come any cheaper. The lower strata of the society invariably have to seek treatment from the public healthcare facilities where the treatments are made available free of cost. However, the crass negligence and callous attitude of the medical professionals usually mars the public healthcare sector. One such incident was reported recently from Bihar whereby tubectomy operation was performed on 24 women without anaesthesia at two government hospitals in Khagaria district.
- Can you believe what pain, misery, agony, and trauma those poor women would have undergone and enduring the same even now? Unimaginable situation indeed. Is this the way to treat the poor and downtrodden who come to government run medical facilities for relief? An unpardonable act that deserves no mercy. Unfortunately, there still has not been much headway in the district administration’s probe into the incident speaks volumes about the public healthcare system’s callous disregard of poor patients. Though the wounds of the women are yet to heal, and the memory of unbearable pain is still vivid, what some women choose to emphasise is that at least they will not be bringing any more children into poverty and joblessness now.
PC: Jagadish Hiremut
- Again, it’s a stark reminder of how long a distance India still needs to traverse to increase access to family planning, to reach a place where no woman feels that she has to pay for it with torture. Irritatingly, Bihar health officials are still giving the excuse that every person has a different body mechanism in response to anaesthesia. Mind you, it is indicative of the utter apathy in public health services upon which 68% of women using modern contraceptive methods depend, per NFHS-5 data. Yes, Bihar has the highest unmet need for family planning among the large states, closely followed by UP.
- This incident should be taken seriously by acting against the errant doctors and to make the overall public health system less indifferent to women’s suffering. It’s a nationwide issue as well. After all, female sterilization remains the most popular contraceptive method cutting across classes, used by 38% of married women aged 15-49. Contrarily, male sterilization is at only 0.3% despite being a simpler procedure. Social re-education is a must pursued vigorously and with intent to reach women. For now, the governments must ensure that women’s access to family planning is smooth and safe. Such incidents should never be repeated.
