Medical Fraternity's Dirty Picture

After almost seven decades of independence, a lay man would think a country must have progressed by leaps and bounds. But unfortunately, for our motherland, that is not the case. Technological or infrastructural advancements may have been plenty, but the progress in our mentality still stuck in the 17^th century. Inspite of being in 2012, dowry deaths are still prevalent, caste system continues to be a blot, gender bias is still rampant. Sigh!

An incident that really shook me out of my Friday morning sleep was the death of a young woman, who died after delivering a healthy baby boy. What’s more shocking was that the ‘doctor’ who carried out the delivery had never been to school, had her college going son as her ward boy and her school dropout daughter helped her as a nurse. The case comes from ‘Warsi Hospital’ located in the central suburbs of Mumbra, and this was not the only one. The hospital has been notorious for carrying out illegal sex determination as well as abortions.

And in one of the most common instances of the Hindi saying ‘Chori pe seena zori’ the guilty woman (I shall lynch myself if I call her a doctor) offered one of the most ridiculous defence saying ‘although she doesn’t have a degree, she has experience and such things happen.’ 

The fact that the hospital was being running for the past many years has further questioned the medical fraternity’s interest on cracking down on the quacks operating in the country. It also shows the insensitivity that people have towards such accidents as it is evident from the woman’s defence.

To look at the flip side of this accident, it is also the big hospitals that are at fault. Before admitting any patient, they demand a certain amount to be deposited. Now for a common man, who in these highly inflated times, is struggling to make ends meet, from where would he cough up an amount that he would even struggle to imagine? It is due to this money making minds of big hospitals that people like the victim’s husband are forced to rely on such quacks without knowing their true colour. The issue has been highlighted in Aamir Khan’s TV show as well. But like a true politician, the Medical Council of India has ‘assured’ us of action to be taken, but no progress has yet been made.

It also ‘yet again’ raises a question on the law against such malpractices. Such accidents keep presenting the ‘dirty picture’ of the medical fraternity. Though the actual movie was a big hit, this one is a big hit too, albeit on our faces!