A 'mechanism' to prevent me from volunteering at a health post

For more than two decades, I (Dr. Govind KC.) have traveled to different parts of the country to provide health care. During that time, especially during the armed conflict, people had to flee overnight to save their lives. Before and after the trip to the village did not have to experience much bitter.

  

 

This time, a health worker working at a health post was threatened because of me. I never imagined that this would happen in a democratic republic of Nepal.

A few days ago, I reached Rimi Health Post in Dolpa Jagadulla. Upon learning that I was leaving, the village headman instructed the health workers at the post to stop me from providing services, threatening not to do otherwise.

I am a doctor registered with the Medical Council of Nepal. And independent citizens. I went there to serve the people, not to run any political program or to oppose the government. When I go to provide such services, I always give basic training to the health workers on the subject of orthopedics so that the people there can benefit from my journey even after my return.

Why can't I volunteer there? The village chairman had no answer. All I could do was threaten the local health workers.

I told the health workers that if I tried to get a job here, it could be a matter of concern to the local level and the state. But I don't have a job. The key here is you. I have no other intention but to serve the people here for three days together with you and the health workers here. So I don't care what the village chairman says.

As soon as I stopped talking, the ward chairman came to see me. His intention is the same. I said- this is a country called Nepal and I am a citizen of this country. If you say this is another country, tell me where to go and get permission. If not, I will serve here as an independent citizen.

He went back. I started service in OPD. About 80 patients came. The first patient was a woman who had not received treatment for a broken bone.

Later, people there said that the first patient was the wife of the ward chairman who came to talk to me. I thought, well done, now the service will not be interrupted.

So amazing That evening, both the village chairman and the ward chairman threatened the post in-charge again. There was no better example of the decentralization of the oligarchy in Singha Durbar reaching Vadastar. More important than the right to health care for the people of remote villages in districts like Dolpa was the inferior instructions given to them by the party.

It was a good example of how dictatorial people in power are making Nepal like North Korea by talking about making it like Switzerland.

He has given the responsibility of an institution like health post to the local body to provide maximum services to the people according to the local needs, not to create a base for political maneuvering and blackmail. What is ironic is that the people's representatives, who have to fight to upgrade the health posts and build hospitals with doctors, threatened to stop the three-day specialist service for the people who were deprived of the services.

On the second day too, I was in a dilemma when the post chief threatened me. I had the right to get free service there and the people there had the right to get service from me. But I would leave on the third day. After that, if the authoritarian government used batons against the post chief because of me, it would not be good.

So I finally left that place the next day.

This episode has raised some questions in me.

Is the responsibility of the government to make the living standard of the citizens comfortable by ensuring education, health care and employment to the citizens or to keep them uneducated, unhealthy and destitute forever and continue to do politics in the name of the same deprivation?

Is the service we have adopted a decentralized federal system to reach out to the villages or to party politics and prejudice to dominate the wards?

Written By :-  Dr. Govind KC

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