When the ears of the electorate are forced to endure constant speeches of self improvisation by the Ministers of the State’s Cabinet, the heteroskedastic representation tilting heavily in favour of the ruling Government comes to light.
Resultantly, the Assembly speeches by the Ministers of the State of Goa amount to a little more a shoddy attempt at overcoming the skewed nature of democratic values being propagated in the State.
How is this the governance we asked for when a Health Minister appears to be keen on lecturing the Assembly Members about the necessity for improvement in his respective Portfolio.
The Ministerial duty is predominantly a definitive discretionary executive action which has to be effectuated based on the needs of the subjects under governance. This Constitutional ideal translates into identification of the problem, affirmative action and adaptive implementation in order to ensure all hurdles are overcome by the State’s Executive despite the bureaucracy of checks and balances drawing its red tape upon the approval of projects.
How then does it befit a Health Minister to expound a Report Card of achievements when in fact the intended recipients of the health policies in Goa are essentially equated to the lamentations included in the speech whereby the Primary Health Centres (PHCs) and the District Hospitals seem to be lacking in the most basic triage needs.
Imagine a scenario where the GMC Super Speciality Block now stands tall and represents the forefront of medical innovation in the State and yet the District Hospitals and PHCs are inadequately equipped and under staffed with the medical personnel of appropriate skill who could optimally refer the patients to the Super Speciality Block based on the correct diagnosis at the tertiary level.
Unless the system of medical triage gets decentralised, there would be no real cohesiveness being achieved in the medical spheres of the State’s welfare development. According to the web-article published by JSA Advocates and Solicitors in their article entitled: ‘Right to Health as a Fundamental Right Guaranteed by the Constitution of India’ published on March 22, 2020:
“According to the World Health Organization (WHO), health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well being and not merely the absence of disease. The WHO goes on to clarify that it is the state’s legal obligation to ensure uniform access to “timely, acceptable, and affordable health care of appropriate quality as well as to provide for the underlying determinants of health, such as safe and potable water, sanitation, food, housing, health-related information and education, and gender equality” to all its people. In India, this right, which is a natural corollary to promoting public health, is protected under the Constitution of India in multiple ways.” (JSA, 2020).
“The Directive Principles of State Policy (DPSP), enshrined in Chapter IV of the Constitution of India, require the state to, among other duties,
- Promote the welfare of its people (Art.38);
- Protect their health and strength from abuse (Art 39(e));
- Provide public assistance in case of sickness, disability or “undeserved want” (Art 41);
- Ensure just and humane conditions of work; and
- Raise nutrition levels, improve the standard of living and consider improvement of public health as its primary duty (Art 47).” (JSA, 2020).
Drishti IAS (2023) in their website article entitled: Right to Health, published on their website on 22 March, 2023, have neatly covered pertinent aspects of the right to health as a corollary to the Welfare State: “Supreme Court in Paschim Banga Khet Mazdoor Samity case (1996) held that in a welfare state, the primary duty of the government is to secure the welfare of the people and moreover it is the obligation of the government to provide adequate medical facilities for its people” (DrishtiIAS, 2023).
Right Based Healthcare Services:
The people are entitled to the right to health, and it creates a compulsion for the government to take steps toward this.
Wide Access to Health Services:
Enables everyone to access the services and ensures that the quality of those services is good enough to improve the health of the people who receive them.
Reduce Out of Pocket Expenditure:
Protects people from the financial consequences of paying for health services out of their own pockets and reduces the risk of people getting pushed into poverty.” (DrishtiIAS, 2023).
“In the subsequent case of Consumer Education and Research Centre V. Union of India AIR 1995 SC 922, held that right to health and medical aid to protect the health and vigor of a worker, both while in service and post-retirement, is a fundamental right under Article 21.” (JSA, 2020).
Right to Health is a part and parcel of Right to Life and therefore right to health is a fundamental right guaranteed to every citizen of India under Article 21 of the Constitution of India. We owe the recognition of this right to the fact that the Supreme Court of India, through a series of judicial precedents, logically extended its interpretation of the right to life to include right to health. (JSA, 2020).
Hence, the futuristic promises of the Constitutional Functionary who represents the Health Department of the State ought to be objective while promising the commission of highly specialised medical diagnostic services such as the PET (positron emission tomography) Scan and Mammography which are essentially related to Oncology studies when in fact the State Government has already cut the health budget by 20%. It ought to baffle a common man of general prudence as to how it would be rational in investing in niche medical fields when in fact the State is at laggards when it comes to ensuring basic healthcare needs at the simplest level to the needy patients.
