The recent desecration of Dr. Ambedkar's statue in UP was a deplorable and henious crime. I can perfectly understand anger felt by our dalit berthern, though I may not agree with their methods of protest. But protest they must, lest this crime will go unpunished. Losing young lives during protests is not desirable. Non-violent but strong protest, say a huge rally or a candle light march, by all who oppose this henious crime (and not just dalits) is called for.
In this hour of crisis, we must show that we stand with our dalit bretheren and understand their anguish. Lets stay united and fight these divisive tendancies.
Thursday, November 30, 2006
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Sanitation - a must
As I am recovering from a serious complication of parasitic infection, I am left musing about the state of sanitation in India. We Indians pay 7% of our GDP on healthcare and most of it is out of pocket, by us consumer. Most of it is spent in curing diseases such as upper respiratory tract infections, infections of digestive tract and other water borne diseases. Nearlly all of these are preventive diseases.
We, the urban well off, do take care at point of consumption at our homes, to make sure that we are not taking in harmful germs with our water and food. But we cannot guarantee the same when we are forced to eat out, for example. Harmful germs can enter the served food anytime between the food is collected at source till it is served. The most common and prevenatble cause of these germs getting into our food and water is lack of sanitation.
People defecate in open, for lack of toilets. The faeces carry a lot of harmful germs which find their way in our water and food sources. If we provide toilets for every one, we'll eliminate one great source of infection. May be we can save a signifcant portion of health care expenses (7% of India's GDP is huge!).
So what are our leaders doing. Surprisingly they do have an understanding of the issue. There are politicians (from Maharashtra, from where I hail) like, Mr. R. R. Patil (a.k.a Aba) and Mr. Narayan Rane who are looking into these. Both of them have done some work in area of sanitation in their respective constituencies. Aba Patil has tried to introduce sanitation in statewide agenda, by starting a grassroot level scheme to encourage sanitation. Mr, Rane has declared to make his entire district (which is much bigger than his constitunecy) free of open defecation. This is not a glamorous issue. No TV channel or new paper will be ready to cover this. However this is an important issue, which these grassroot level leaders are addressing. We in India, tend to abuse our politicians and take a dig at them at slightest provocations. But we must also give them their dues when they are trying to make a fundamental change without giving in to cheap publicity.
So from my convalescence bed I salute Mr. Patil and Mr. Rane for doing the right thing!
We, the urban well off, do take care at point of consumption at our homes, to make sure that we are not taking in harmful germs with our water and food. But we cannot guarantee the same when we are forced to eat out, for example. Harmful germs can enter the served food anytime between the food is collected at source till it is served. The most common and prevenatble cause of these germs getting into our food and water is lack of sanitation.
People defecate in open, for lack of toilets. The faeces carry a lot of harmful germs which find their way in our water and food sources. If we provide toilets for every one, we'll eliminate one great source of infection. May be we can save a signifcant portion of health care expenses (7% of India's GDP is huge!).
So what are our leaders doing. Surprisingly they do have an understanding of the issue. There are politicians (from Maharashtra, from where I hail) like, Mr. R. R. Patil (a.k.a Aba) and Mr. Narayan Rane who are looking into these. Both of them have done some work in area of sanitation in their respective constituencies. Aba Patil has tried to introduce sanitation in statewide agenda, by starting a grassroot level scheme to encourage sanitation. Mr, Rane has declared to make his entire district (which is much bigger than his constitunecy) free of open defecation. This is not a glamorous issue. No TV channel or new paper will be ready to cover this. However this is an important issue, which these grassroot level leaders are addressing. We in India, tend to abuse our politicians and take a dig at them at slightest provocations. But we must also give them their dues when they are trying to make a fundamental change without giving in to cheap publicity.
So from my convalescence bed I salute Mr. Patil and Mr. Rane for doing the right thing!
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