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मैं पूरी तरह एक आनदोलन जीवी हूं।

मैं पर्यावरण के लिए अपनी आवाज उठाती हूं, मैं स्वच्छ हवा की मांग करती हूं, मैं लोगों से अपने कचरे को अलग करने और रीसायकल करने में मदद करने का आग्रह करती हूं। मैं बहुत कोशिश करती हूं कि प्लास्टिक लैंडफिल या महासागरों तक न पहुंचे।

मैं चिल्ला कर सीएम को समझाने की कोशिश करती हूं कि लालच की वेदी पर अरावली को नष्ट नहीं किया जा सकता है। हरियाणा के जंगलों में अंतिम छोर तक पहुंचने वाले बिल्डरों को उन नागरिकों के लिए एक आपदा होगी जो पहले से ही “दुनिया में सबसे खराब हवा की गुणवत्ता” वाले शहर में रहते हैं।

मैं समाज में भ्रष्टाचार का मुद्दा उठातती रहती हूं। मैं एक ऐसे देश का सपना देखती हूं, जहां स्वच्छ पानी और निर्बाध बिजली अपने सभी नागरिकों तक पहुंचे।

मैं बेहतर स्वास्थ्य सेवा और बेहतर सरकारी अस्पतालों की मांग करती हूं ताकि अगर हम नहीं, तो कम से कम हमारे लिए काम करने वाले लोग हमारे करों के भुगतान की गई सुविधाओं का उपयोग कर सकें। मैं चाहती हूं कि स्वास्थ्य सेवा की गुणवत्ता कमजोर नहीं हो और क्वैकेरी नियंत्रित रहे।

मैं अपनी आवाज उठाती हूं जब मेडिकल कॉलेज की फीस सरकारी नियंत्रण से स्वतंत्र की जाती है। जब सरकारी कॉलेज 4 लाख से सीधे एमबीबीएस के लिए ₹ 40 लाख चार्ज करना शुरू करते हैं।

जब ड्यूटी डॉक्टरों की पिटाई की जाती है और आरोपियों पर कोई कार्रवाई नहीं की जाती तो मैं उत्तेजित हो जाती हूं। अधिशेष अधिनियमित जूनियर डॉक्टरों के साथ मारपीट की जाती है और सरकार ध्यान ही नहीं देती।

जब महिलाओं के खिलाफ अपराध होते हैं और पुलिस पीड़ित की बजाय आरोपियों को बचाती है तो मेरा खून खौलता है। मैं ट्वीट करती हूं। मैं कविता लिखती हूँ। मैं फेसबुक पर अपनी पीड़ा साझा करती हूं। मैं सड़क पर विरोध करती हूं।

मैं वह प्रजाति हूं जिसका पीएम ने संसद में वर्णन किया। मैं एक अंदोलन-जीव हूँ वह व्यक्ति जो कमजोर के खातिर शक्तिशाली के सामने खड़ा हो। खामोश की आवाज बनती हू । यह उन हजारों लोगों की याद दिलाता है जिन्होंने स्वतंत्रता के संघर्ष में अपनी आवाज बुलंद की। उनके प्रयासों ने हमें मुक्त भारत दिया।

लेकिन श्रीमान प्रधानमंत्री, मैं परजीवी नहीं हूं।

एक परजीवी वह होता है जो जीवन भर कुछ नहीं करता है और दावा करता है कि वह 35 वर्षों से दूसरे लोगों के सहारे जी रहा है। वह जो कहता है कि उसके पास नौकरी नहीं थी, लेकिन उसने पूरी दुनिया की यात्रा की। कोई व्यक्ति जो किसी भी ऑदोलन का हिस्सा नहीं था, लेकिन इसके लिए प्रयास करने वालों का श्रे ले गया और राजनीतिक लाभ उठाया।

जिन लोगों को आप परजीवी कहते हैं, वे स्वयं-जीवि हैं। किसान आत्मनिर्भर हैं। उनकी रचना पूरे देश का पेट भर देती है। वकील, एक्टिविस्ट, डॉक्टर, शॉप कीपर्स, छोटे उद्योगपति ऐसे हैं जो नौकरियां पैदा करते हैं और करों का भुगतान करते हैं और पूरे देश इनके सर पर चलता है।

यह राष्ट्र आंदोलनजीवी के खून पसीने से पैदा हुआ था। सभी भारतीयों को याद रहे तो अच्छा होगा; सम्मान और सहानुभूति के साथ शांतिपूर्ण प्रदर्शनकारियों सेबात चीत कर मसला सुलझाऐ|

डॉ सारिका वर्मा
ईएनटी सर्जन गुड़गांव

I am a serial protestor. An Andolan jivi to the core.

I raise my voice for the environment, I demand clean air, I urge people to segregate their waste and help recycle. I try very hard that plastics dont reach the landfills or oceans.

I scream myself hoarse trying to explain to the CM that the Aravallis cannot be destroyed at the altar of greed. Allowing builders access to the last bit of Haryana’s forests will be a disaster for the citizens who already live in the city with “worst air quality in the world”.

I have been raising the issue of corruption in society. I dream of a country where clean water and uninterrupted power supply reach all its citizens.

I demand better healthcare and better government hospitals so that if not us, atleast the people who work for us can use the facilities paid for by our taxes. I ask that quality of healthcare is not diluted and quackery is controlled.

I raise my voice when medical college fees becomes independent of government control. When government colleges start charging ₹ 40 lakhs for MBBS straight hike from ₹ 4 lakhs.

I get agitated when duty doctors are beaten up and no action is taken on the accused. It riles me no end that underpaid overworked junior doctors are manhandled and the government doesn’t care.

When crimes against women happen and the police protect the accused instead of the victim is boils my blood. I tweet. I write poetry. I share my anguish on Facebook. I protest on the road.

I am the species which PM described in the Parliament. I’m an Andolan-jivi. The person who stands up to the powerful for the sake of the down trodden. The silent. The voiceless. It reminds me of the thousands who raised their voice in the struggle for independence. Their efforts gave us Free India.

But I’m sorry Mr Prime Minister, I’m not a parasite, a parijivi.

A parasite is someone who does nothing all his life and claims he has lived off other people for 35 years. Someone who says he did not have a job, but traveled all over the world. Someone who was not part of any andolan, but was happy to walkover those strived for it and took political mileage of it all.

The people you have called parasites are swayam- jivi. The farmers are self reliant and self sufficient. Their creation fills the bellies of the entire nation. The lawyers, activists, doctors, shop keepers, small industrialists are the ones who create jobs and pay taxes and provide for the entire nation.

This nation was born out of the sweat and blood of Andolan-jivis. It would be nice if all Indians remember that; and treat peaceful protestors with respect and empathy.

Dr.Sarika Verma
ENT surgeon Gurgaon

After listening to the finance minister speak about the health budget yesterday I was really happy that 2,23,846 crores is allocated for health. On reading the fine print one is shocked to discover that 60,030 crores of clean water and sanitation, 2700 crores of nutrition which were being spent under other ministries have now been labelled as health spend.

The health ministry spent 78,000 crores last year and the outlay on health this financial year is 71,269 crores. So it’s actually less than what was needed last year!!

I wonder if friends in the industry felt a similar rollercoaster of emotions after hearing about the 2 lakh crore bailout package announced in the Bounce Back Bharat which just turned out to be a whole lot of bank loans instead of real help to businesses.

I had hoped that the pandemic would be a wake up call to the government be a landmark moment in Indian healthcare. Indian government hospitals and primary health centres need to be improved.We must spend more on upgrading the infrastructure including hospital wards, operation theatres, intensive care units, neonatal ICUs and provide ambulance services across the length and breadth of the country.

In September last year I started a petition asking Finance minister to allocate more on healthcare. Almost 2 lakh people signed this petition. Any one reading this article knows the state of public health care in India. The sad joke that is an Indian reality: a pizza gets delivered in 30 minutes but no such guarantee for an ambulance if someone has a heart attack or stroke at home.

How many of you have tried getting admitted in a government hospital for a minor procedure? Don’t you wish for them to be upgraded and become at par with private hospitals?

ASHA workers and Anganwadi workers who work on the grassroot level and ensure all the government schemes for maternal and child health reach the end user are given a salary of 2000-4500₹. Please read this amount carefully. This is not even one third of minimum wages. Often these workers are not paid salaries for 6 months at a stretch. If we don’t increase the health budget how do we expect to improve healthcare on the ground? No one can work for free and health services like everything else cost money. I think it is very important that policy makers understand the importance of health in an attempt to improve the economic parameters of the nation.

Haryana government has recently increased the cost of medical education in its government colleges from 4 lakhs to 40 lakhs with a bond, and the UP government has announced a bond of 1 crore for post-graduates failing to work in government hospitals for 7 years. Such kind of tactics will make medicine a less attractive profession for students.

Central council for Indian medicine has recently permitted Ayurveda Doctors to do 58 kinds of modern surgeries in the hope of reaching healthcare to the people in peripheries. I had much rather hoped that we would instead work on a blueprint of a healthier Bharat where every Indian got access to quality healthcare irrespective of where they lived. Not MBBS doctors for urbanites and Ayurveda doctors for rural citizens. Unscientifically mixing specialities like Ayurveda and Modern Medicine doesn’t seem to be the answer to holistic healing.

India spends about 1.6% of its GDP on health compared to 14-18% by the developed nations and 6% by Bangladesh and Srilanka.The finance minister had last year said they hope to increase it to 2.5% by 2025, but other than the 35,000 crore kept aside for the covid vaccination program we are actually going to spend less on health this year than we did in 2020.

It’s very distressing that the government refuses to learn anything from the pandemic. Maybe the deaths of 740 doctors and 1.5-2 lakh citizens has not acted as a wake up call to treat health as a priority expenditure.

Then what will?
Dr.Sarika Verma
ENT surgeon Gurgaon

My critique of the health budget in the Mumbai Mid-day on 3rd February.