Denying entry-murder with a difference

With an irritated mood, shaky hands, and a gloomy atmosphere all around writing about the heart wrenching incident at “Lala Deead” Hospital. Named after the great and pious lady saint “Lalla Deead” which is known for her patience-a hospital in Srinagar has turned into a slaughter house. L.D is always in the news some times for good but mostly for negligence, corruption, rude and arrogant behaviour by the doctors, paramedical staff and security personals of the said hospital. Today’s tragic news about the women from North Kashmir’s Kupwara has shook the very foundations of humanism who gave birth to a baby,but this baby lived for a short span of time as his was stopped by the security guards and was asked to pay chai –Corruption with a difference ,if sources are to be believed this poor father has already paid Rs. 800 but this does satisfy the security guards and asked him for more perhaps Rs. 200 or in other words 1000 (sas deh barabar). During the bargaining of ten minutes the baby got expired in the laps of his father (ina lilahe wainna elihe rajaoon) . The tragedy is that this baby was murdered only for Rs. 200. The lady was brought to L.D Hospital after traveling more than 100 kilometers in this chilly weather with a hope that she will become a mother, but in return she got a dead body of his beloved baby! This is a case of negligence and corruption as the door was closed this toddler was exiled from cradle towards grave. Is it not a Murder?
Yes it is a murder with a difference. The tragedy is that on one hand we have acts to control the corruption and big hoarding are installed in every office regarding the prohibition of corruption and same hoardings can be seen in L.D hospital also. Pledges are taken by the civil servants and the special days and weeks are celebrated in the name to curb corruption, but impact is negligible on ground. Not only is this but the barbarism at L.D is against “Kashmiryat and Insanyat” for which Kashmir is known worldwide. Besides that this institute violates the fundamental right of the patient that is right to health which is guaranteed under the article 21(Right to Life) of Indian constitution.Another tragedy is that all doctors, bureaucrats and politicians of the union territory tweeted about the incident and condemn the incident, but the tweet will not bring the dead baby back and will not reduce the pain of “parents ”. It is worth to mention here that health care facilities especially maternity health care is not up to mark in valley and the maternity cases of whole Kashmir Valley are handled by the single maternity Hospital-L.D Srinagar. My question to all bureaucrats and politicians of the UT is that had there been special medical facility available at Kupwara the tragic incident may not have happen. Now the last tragedy is that nothing has been done except suspension and disengagement. But the need is that there should be severe punishment to the corrupted people so that such incidents may not happen in future and there is immediate need to upgrade the maternity services at district level hospitals so the referral system may decline to large extent.
(The Author teaches Geography at Govt. Degree College Kilam. Views are his own)
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