In past few years including the current one, our state was given credit for the health service standards by the Union Health Ministry as far as the implementation of Central Health Schemes in J&K are concerned. If the evaluation at central level is correct then it will be a matter of satisfaction for people of the state.
But, going by what is visible on the ground, one finds bad situation prevalent in health centres and hospitals in most of the districts and interiors of our state.
May be the health indicators in Jammu Kashmir look better vis a vis other states in the country but this does not mean perceptible progress in real terms keeping in view comparatively lesser population pressure and liberal flow of central funds. Further, the evaluation process lacks accuracy and credibility because procedure has many lacunae.
Most of the assessments are done on the basis of official data available in the records with annual provisioning and adjustments on the table without actual collection of real field data.
The working of statistical offices within civic bodies- responsible for registration of Births and Deaths, registering of voters and processing of residents' information like Aadhar is highly disappointing and agonizing. This is one of the reasons why the improvements in the health and social sectors do not get registered in the mind of the common man or independent auditing agencies. The national scenario is no different. In past two years in India, barely 15 per cent of those who are dead got registered, and barely 20 per cent of this number got medically certified as being clinically dead. The present Central Government has begun acting on remedying this pathetic situation.
For almost 70 years, successive Central governments did not even create a mechanism for identifying which of its citizens were died. Maybe, politicos, bureaucrats and businessmen thought that keeping a man alive on the books – even after he/she is dead — would enable someone to continue stealing his share of rations and other benefits.
If this isn't bad enough, there is further evidence that only 57 per cent of those who practice medicine are actually qualified.
Almost 43 per cent of allopathic doctors are not qualified. They are nothing more than quacks; and the government has still not put in a mechanism to weed them out. Is it then any surprise to discover that India has performed disastrously on the World Health Organization's rankings of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)?
On many of the parameters, India has been found wanting. And there are other parameters where there is a reason to suspect that the data provided to the WHO surveyors did not present the true picture. From the data that is available, India's mortality rates on account of poor air quality and hygiene stares you in the face.
Ditto with data which shows how too many children, under 5 years of age, suffer from stunting and wasting away.
The irony is that the government first allows such conditions to destroy health, and then refuses to set up decent facilities where such ailments can be addressed. This is not just irresponsibility. It is callousness, which is akin to culpable homicide. Yet, there are signs that administrators are waking up to these gross deficiencies.
The new Health Minister of Jammu Kashmir after assuming the charge was on record admitting about the poor sanitation and upkeep of the health institutions in the state and desired much to be done.
At the central level, the union health minister has yet to admit the poor state of affairs. Hopefully, the Prime Minister's ‘Swachh Bharat' could engender improvement in the quality of air and water by better sanitation and hygiene at national level and in our state too.
These are good signs. But a lot more needs to be done before India can aspire to global greatness.
