Smart Legislators required, not Suppandis'

‘Experience is the best teacher of all things’, a proverb recorded in Julius Caesar’s book, Commentarii de Bello Civili (Commentaries on the Civil War), is something that our bureaucrats or rulers have not  yet understood or come across. A few years back, with the outbreak of Bird-Flu and the deaths that followed, we were supposed to have formulated a plan in case something like this sprang up again. The Swine Flu pandemic and the secret cover up of the recent Chikungunia endemic are telling pointers to the current sordid state of affairs in our health ministry. Rather than weighing out the options at hand and making sound decisions based on logic and previous experiences, our governments are used to ‘Knee-jerk’ reactions, or simply put – Act first, Think next. The Bird Flu and Chikungunya endemic, years ago, should have prompted the government to set up a model that would help tackle something enormous and deadly as the current Swine Flu (and the Chikungunya outbreak).

The decision to ban private practice of Medical College Doctors and make Medical Colleges (MC) referral centres only is another such badly planned move. No doubt doing this would help us advance in medical research and be at par with our Western counterparts as this would require time on the side of the Doctors for study on new techniques and drugs, but, was it executed properly? With most of our Public Health Centres (PHC) and Community Medical Centres (CMC) lacking proper or basic facilities, how is this decision going to help? What the government should have done is first improve the lower tiers, make sure that the PHCs and CMCs have the manpower and equipment to provide the necessary service to the people who fall outside the purview of MCs and its Doctors once the law got implemented.

This negligence was further visible when Contraceptive pills were introduced in the Indian market. The marketing campaign of the drug companies gave a wrong idea to consumers that these pills would prevent pregnancy under any circumstances and also failed to mention the side effects (which, by the way are very severe), and who can and cannot consume these pills. This was also in a way promoting the concept of casual relationships, something very common in Western countries, but against our ethos. It was the duty of the health ministry to regulate such ads and guard the general public from such false notions.

Legitimising Homosexuality, ban on NH-212, plight of farmers in drought hit states, the floods in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh—the list keeps going on and on. What we need right now is a government that is proactive, and not reactive, one that learns from past mistakes and short comings and prepares for the future. We need a government that is smart enough to know that that is their job.