Doctors on street - Reservation
With reservation issues gradually paralysing the countries entire public health systems, the doctors are now in the street raising their voices against reservation of seats in the higher studies for the people belonging to the Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes.
Doctors are claiming that this will simply kill merit if seats are entrusted to the candidates from reserved quota. It is a nation wide campaign that is going on since last few weeks and getting a lot of media-focus. The movement has also been able to draw attention of the Prime Minister, the hon’ble President of India and few politicians who seem to be otherwise reluctant to hear anything that goes against reservation or that even demands a partial modification of reservation policy.
Many people believes that India still is in crying need of reservation for its vast majority of people belonging to the SC, ST and OBC category. They require a platform/support to come up to the forefront and speak for their own. And the country has all along been maintaining its policy for providing the down-trodden people a chance to come forward.
Undoubtedly, it is an honest objective, but who are all actually enjoying the facilities of reservation? How far the policy has been successful to facilitate that class in their upcoming since over fifty years of our Indipendance?
For obvious reasons, the real target facility group has received practically nothing, but in the name of reservation, it appears that, lots of people belonging to rather affluent classes and at the same time has not a single occasion been deprieved of any services/facilities for belonging to SC/ST/OBC category, are the actual beneficiaries.
That is sad enough, and it happens so often!
This may be a side-effect of parliamentary democracy where majority is the rule and even when some policies create historical frustration among a section of the people who otherwise are innocent and deserve the same opportunity as being an Indian, they have to eat it up and digest .
But why the Docs on the street?
Doctors have taken the matter in streets, launching protests in all forms, going on for hunger strike, closing OPDs in hospitals and what not? The issue of “killing merit” is always being highlighted. They are pretty concerned for the poor health services that the country will witness within coming five years for these low-merit Doctors.
What people of this poor country see now?
Yah, people of India, including Bengal have seen many brilliant doctors, brilliant not for their merit alone but for having a human heart and who would possess that healing touch in his/her words, gesture and in prescriptions as well.
But that is a history of the past. Over last one or two decades, Doctors have de-graded themselves in totality, although medical science has witnessed tremendous progress. Patients are now deemed like ATMs, insert the card and fetch money. There are numerous examples around everywhere.
Really speaking, people are quite confused, and the ultimate victims as well.