India @ 70 - Part 1

With yet another Independence Day celebration on August 15, 2017, India and the Indians were jubilant over the typical hash tag - India at 70. Nationalists were all in for the praise of the present government, while the liberals were causing all the hue and cry around the misses and messes in the political scenario.

But in the whole turn, the nation seems to have forgotten the incident of August 11, 2017 when almost 70 new borns went to definite permanent sleep in the State of Uttar Pradesh.  When we look at the question why?, the obvious answer from any government agency, minister or legislature would be lack of oxygen cylinder supply.  Liberals would target government over it and the government would highlight the failures of the previous government in setting up the right process.  In short, the actual cause for the case would get overshadowed with blames and counter blames.  But, what needs to be looked at the bureaucratic approach that caused the acute shortage of life saving supply to a Government Hospital. 

The Supplier agency was sending reminder alerts to the hospital for delayed unpaid invoices, but no one was there in the bureaucratic chain to heed to those alerts. In the mean time the contract of the supplier gets over and he stops supply of the Oxygen Cylinders, so that makes it much grave a situation than it could have been.  Ultimately the impact was on the lives of those who were to still see the world, they rather saw the cruelty way ahead of the time they could have.  They became the posthumous witness of the entire episode. Many of them leaving the world without may be getting a name by which we shall have said the prayers for their souls to attain the peace.

But, is this the first such case in the Medical Industry in India?  Is this the only case that has been reported and has made some splash in the political corridors as well as media?  The answer probably is Yes, because in recent times this is the most grievous incident that we have witnessed.  But going back in the history of Indian Government Medical History, there are probably more that should teach us a lesson or two:

1. Case of the medicine supply where the doctor in charge goes missing after being identified as the culprit and master mind behind the nexus that diverted hospital supplies to private nursing homes and pharmacists. He is declared dead, but the nexus created by him was still being run that certainly he controlled from his abode away from where the cops would have looked for him.  With adequate political backing by the then ruling government, he was well covered, but finally gets caught  and sentenced - Case from Uttar Pradesh
2. Case of counterfeit / fake drugs being supplied to the Government hospitals by the suppliers while diverting the original to the pharmacists at lower prices and make mullah on both ends.  high profile government officials as well as politicians involved in the racket - Case from multiple states in India, Specifically to highlight - Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa & Maharashtra. Modus Operandi is so neat that only the middle man are caught and then the case gets into the cold basket with no headway.  This still happens and the common man suffers.
3. Case of multiple murders across India for opposing the above practices; culprit gets off as only the offender gets caught and gets a max punishment of Life imprisonment (14 or 20 years). In many cases, the offender gets out way ahead and lives a normal life.  Forget the justice for the political backing for the main culprits and the offenders.

So, if we look at the state of Affairs in the Medical Arena, there is a lot of corruption that has marred the medical supply affair.  What is needed is to clean this malpractice and uproot the corruption in the medical supply chain model.  Unless Government, Media and the public acts to end it, India @ 70 would still be immature Baby rather than a grown up nation.

Corruption - The Root Cause

Have often wondered what could be the root cause of the evil of Corruption?  The answer that often came to my mind relates to someone's work getting stuck and then the person tries to get work done by hook or crook and when even that doesn't work, they try to pay off the obstacle..buy convenience.

But yesterday, my whole thought process was literally taken up for a ride by what I saw in a movie "Bombay Talkies".  I was astonished at the way it changed my whole set of thoughts.  In the scene that I am referring, this small kid was trying to tell her father to pay up for her School Tour that would involve visit to historical locations et al. The father tried to evade the demand in various ways, but what he finally did made me feel sad about the state of affairs.  The father gets a gift for his daughter stating "this is for you as you would not be going to the History tour with your class." Literally he was trying to pay off her missing the important tour.  He offered her a Bribe?

Suddenly the whole fact on how the roots of corruption get so deep in our culture and society seem to have getting clear to me.  Though I had seen this "Paying off for not being able to meet child's demand", but had never thought in the directions that it can be one of those critical root causes of prevailing corruption practices.

I would rather prefer being straight forward to the child and tell him / her that I can't fulfill a request as I am not equipped to do so.  It would be better for handling reasonable / unreasonable demands as slowly they would understand something that can be addressed and something they need to live with. But paying off for one's ability is directly or indirectly equivalent to offering a Bribe....

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