Change is the only thing that is permanent. This has been my philosophy throughout. The other day Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann launched with great fanfare the Aam Aadmi Clinic. It leaves me wondering if it is all we have achieved in 75 years of Independence. Vivid are memories when as a child, 60 years ago, I occasionally visited the local dispensary primarily for medical attention. I am not sure whether it was a Municipal Dispensary or a Primary Health Centre run by the State Health department. It had all the facilities that the Aam Aadmi Party Clinics are promising to have. Besides a Doctor, the Dispensary had a nurse, a midwife, a pharmacist and an attendant besides a safai karamchari.
All basic needs of people of our locality – Model Town – were met by the Dispensary.
As I grew older, the Dispensary started losing its usefulness. Sometimes it was either without a doctor or a nurse or both. Drugs were either scarce or there were no replenishments. Routine tests, including the Malaria test, too were discontinued. As the country started enjoying fruits of independence, services became the first casualty. For people belonging to my generation, “services”, including health care, education, streetlights, garbage collection and disposal, local transportation and maintenance of parks and open spaces were all “Sarkari”.
It sounds amazing to hear the State Chief Minister talking of making primary health centers and government schools as prime institutions to meet growing needs of the people.
I went to a Government Model School in my area. Teaching of English with Punjabi or Hindi started from Lower Kindergarten (LKG) class. In 1968 when I sat in the Middle Standard Examination conducted by the District Education Office, my school had the district topper while I also figured among top 50 students of the district.
Even after securing high first division – 484 marks out of 700 – it was a tough competition to get into another “Sarkari” school, Government Model High School, Cemetery Road.
Two years later when the Matriculation Examination was conducted by the Punjab School Education Board for the first time, my school had the State topper. Incidentally, he was the same boy who had topped the Middle standard exam. I was once again among the top 100 students of the State. Those were the days when Government schools produced the toppers. The “sarkari” dispensaries sans picture of the Chief Minister provided free basic treatment. Now after 60 years, the Chief Minister’s assertion that the government was committed to rejuvenate the health care and education system in the state left me wondering whether we were moving forward or going back.
Who has been at fault for the present plight of basic services that the State was mandated to provide?
Of course, people have been electing their governments!
(Prabhjot Singh is a veteran journalist with over three decades of experience covering a wide spectrum of subjects and stories. He has covered Punjab and Sikh affairs for more than three decades besides covering seven Olympics and several major sporting events and hosting TV shows. For more in-depth analysis please visit probingeye.com or follow him on Twitter.com/probingeye)