The birth of a stillborn on the roadside in Srinagar in the freezing cold on the night of January 17 because the hospital refused to admit the lady in labour pains is a momentous man-made tragedy. It speaks for the insensitivity prevalent in our society. It also tells us the unprofessionalism that has ingrained in our system because we have developed a strong feeling that the current conflict is the best shield against any call for accountability. And, what happened to Surya Begum of Moori, Kupwara, at Lal Ded hospital, Srinagar, and the remarks with which the doctor lashed with her and her attendants should make us all search ourselves for manifestation of racial bias as well. But the January 17 incident is – must be – larger than that. That is what we need to study in-depth.
The whole incident points out to many problems existing within our society, and to say that there are no social issues involved in the system would be denying the obvious. The selective outrage by the leaders, to whom the social media has become a convenient tool to comment on anything under the sun from the very comfort of their bed rooms and well-heated residences can never imagine and feel the pain that Surya Begum felt while on the road and after giving birth to the still born in minus temperatures.
Two lives were snatched away – the lady became mother but could not stay long as mother, and the child who did not breathe even for a second in the chill of the “Chillai Kalan” on that ill-fated night All this because they were treated unfairly and inhumanely by the system of which that doctor was a part. The tragedy was man-made and also the result of the hollow system with which we have compromised because of our greed and reconciliation to the idea that nothing could improve. We are equal partners in the tragedy that befell that Kupwara family.
The whole blame, as of now, has been laid at the doorstep of the doctor who refused to provide a shelter to the patient for a night, knowing that what fate could have awaited the woman in labour pains outside in the bone-chilling cold.
The doctor is a part of the defective system that we have allowed to grow, and the politicians have patronised over the years.Today, we may boast of our rich heritage and sense of accommodation, but isn’t it a fact that this particular incident at Lal Ded, the largest maternity hospital in Kashmir, is not the isolated one. There must have been many other cases of the similar nature that have gone unreported or unnoticed.
There also is a need to understand, why did the concerned doctor, who has been shifted out of the hospital, for her unprofessional attitude, which many would call ” unethical”, too, did what she did. Were her personal biases at work,or was she behaving as an extension of the class conflict that hides all our unbecoming acts.
This individual act has many dimensions, which need to be studied and understood further, because the whole truth will not come out with merely the administrative inquiries, which would attempt to reconstruct the reconstruct the scene, and then quiz doctor about it before drawing its conclusions and recommendations. There have been so many inquiries in the past and the final outcome is not unknown to us- nothing happens. The system is so immune to the change and reform. For sure, no one would read even those recommendations, because the social system is so wrecked from within that it cannot be repaired over night by one or a series of inquiries. More than administrative intervention, it requires social intervention.
The fact is that the interpersonal relations have nosedived. It also is true that over the decades we have developed a systematic and structural bias in our approach and attitude toward almost everything. As long as we are happy, or satisfied with the system that can cater to our needs, we can afford to look other way. And when there are such incidents in which a hapless woman is thrown out of the hospital, our selective outrage is manifested in social media. Thereafter, everything is forgotten.
Worse, is that we tend to see that no one sees our biased and unprofessional acts because there is a large smokescreen of the conflict that hides all our acts of omission and commission. The professional duty and the inter personal relations should not be determined by on which side of the conflict we choose to live or act. There is a need to understand the pain in the real sense, so that the malaise in our society is weeded out. We don’t need Surya Begum’s example to shake our conscience.
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