In 2017, Saraswati Kirola’s husband started suffering from shooting pain in his head. At the Chaukhutia community health centre in Uttarakhand’s Almora, with no specialist or equipment to run tests, his illness could not be diagnosed. She then took him to a private hospital in Haldwani, 135 kilometres away.
“Even after a week, the doctors could not determine what caused the headache, and his head started swelling,” she says. After spending Rs 1.5 lakh on treatment there, the family went to Delhi. “He was suffering from complications of a past injury and had to be operated upon,” Kirola says. “What angers me is that 25 years after the formation of the state, there is no healthcare facility in the hills for even primary treatment,” she says, as she marches to the Chief Minister’s residence in Dehradun, around 300 km from Chaukhutia.
Kirola was one of the first women to sit in at the protest seeking specialists and better facilities at the Chaukhutia community health centre. On October 2, the protest started with the slogans: “Swasthya sewayen bahal karo, doctor do, aspatal bachao (Boost health services, provide doctors, save hospitals)”. It gained attention after Bhuwan Kathayat, one of the protest leaders and a former Army man, undertook a hunger strike.
Kathayat’s health then deteriorated, and he also had to be taken to a private hospital in Haldwani for treatment. After spending a week in hospital, on October 13, he rejoined the protest. “We had to stay driven because this is not just the story of a village in Almora, this is rampant across the state,” Kirola says.
Govt’s efforts
On October 16, the Uttarakhand government announced that it would upgrade the CHC to a Sub-District Hospital (SDH). Administrative approval and a government order were quickly issued. The government announced that doctors and medical staff would be appointed as per Indian Public Health Standards norms, and the hospital would be equipped with a digital X-ray machine and amped up to a 50-bed hospital from the existing 30.
However, the protesters were not assuaged. Kathayat claims that the government last year issued a Government Order to construct a new block on the premises. “We don’t need a new building; we need doctors to serve in the existing one. Currently, there are four doctors with an MBBS degree, who are not specialists in any field. We are authorised to have a paediatrician, a gynaecologist, and a physician. Patients are referred to other hospitals and die on the way. It has been 25 years since a new state was formed, and if the government cannot make good on promises for which the state was conceived, we will have to fight for it,” Kathayat says.
The healthcare system in Uttarakhand has been under scrutiny recently after the death in July of a one-year-old boy. He had shown signs of severe dehydration and was initially taken to a primary health centre before being moved to four hospitals, one after another, in Bageshwar, Almora, and finally Nainital’s Haldwani, where he died in an ICU six days later.
On the move
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Kathayat, who started the march from Chaukhutia on Friday, reached Karnprayag with scores of protesters from across Kumaon on Saturday, after covering 45 km on foot. He aims to reach Dehradun in 10 days.
Kathayat explains why he started the protest: “Four months ago, two women approached me to raise concerns about the health centre. I wrote a letter to the Chief Minister and sent it through the tehsildar. Though senior officials in the district administration came and assured us of help, I knew no change was possible without mobilising the villagers. After the hunger strike and large demonstrations, the government passed an order, but it is not enough.”
Kirola, who is a zila panchayat member, chimes in, “We have to travel a hundred kilometres to get the rabies vaccine. Treatment for fever and cold is through over-the-counter pills. This is not an aberration; this is the state of hill districts across Uttarakhand.”
Kathayat says once the fight for better healthcare is won, they will demand better education, roads, and jobs. “As we march, we are meeting villagers. We have to tell them all the governments we have had are pahadi virodhi (against people of the hills),” he says.
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Congress state president Karan Mahara had earlier extended support to the protesters in Chaukhutia. “Twenty-five years have passed since Uttarakhand became a state, yet its pain remains the same — no ambulances, no doctors, no functioning system. And while people continue to die for want of basic healthcare, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami is spending Rs 1,001 crore on advertisements to polish his image,” he alleged.
