Pathetic condition of Kasaragod Medical College

When we boast that our public health services are the best, the discrimination and apathy faced by Kasaragod district in health are unparalleled. The residents of Kasaragod still need to go to Mangalore to avail specialist medical care. The scarcity of medical care in Kasaragod usually makes news through the condition of Endosulfan patients living there.

A group of people in the district are facing extreme difficulty, without proper health care, brought about by the poisoning of the population by a government-related company. This has been going on for years. The Supreme Court and the Green Tribunal had stipulated that there must be a medical college with full facilities in Kasaragod and start specialty sections devoted to the treatment of Endosulfan victims. However, nothing materialized. Even the full amount of the compensation, ordered by the Supreme Court, to be given to Endosulfan patients was handed out only recently.

This article is written while world-renowned social activist, Daya Bai, is undertaking a hunger strike to force the government to meet the demands of Endosulfan victims. Her strike is to provide needed medical treatment to Endosulfan patients. As the life of Daya Bai is at risk, the government is forced to settle her protest. However, is the government thinking about how this situation is being repeated?

Kasaragod Medical College began nine years ago. The so-called ‘efficiency of our health sector' is evident from the fact that the time it took to complete the building construction of the medical college was nine years. Only the building construction is complete. Other works, including wiring, are yet to start. No one knows how much time it would take to complete these works.

The Kasaragod Medical College is now running without the facilities of even a Primary Health Center. The OP is running in the Administrative Block. The process to begin other medical departments are yet to start.

There is no clue about specialty departments to treat endosulfan patients. Building and construction and providing other basic facilities is not something that is very difficult to do in today’s age and time. The mental idea that government works must progress slowly has gripped the Kasaragod Medical College.

Even if Daya Bai’s hunger strike is settled or not, the Health Department must see to it that the Kasaragod Medical College departments must run fully-fledged and efficiently and convert it into a place of service.

The government is responsible for the present condition of 7000 endosulfan victims and it cannot shrink away from its responsibility to them. It is the duty of the government to provide them with sufficient medical treatment and care without any controversies.

In addition, to giving orders from Thiruvananthapuram, it must be monitored if these orders are executed.

Not only for the endosulfan victims but the Kasaragod Medical College will be beneficial to every person living in the Kasaragod district. What good is a medical college if it cannot give decent medical treatment to the public?