A way to monitor the efficacy of the existing health system in a district is to interview a sample of patients by method of home-visit.In one such exercise,I reached a village in West Khasi Hills District of Meghalaya.
As the SUV manoeuvred through the road(one can't actually call it a road),top-less, bare-footed kids pulled the back-bumper,some jumped on it.Most could have run faster than the jeep but all chose to follow.
The village had not seen an outsider for long.In no time,I was surrounded by a huge crowd.Some looked curious;most seemed happy.
Poverty at it's worst,torn dress and shattered looks were more than I could see.
As I began talking to them through a local interpreter,some smarter ones tried to speak of the bad road,some asked for a school and a few others for electricity.
Little did they understand that I had come just to take interview of a patient..and their problems were far beyond what I could address.
Roads for one,I knew would never happen,why should the government invest on the track where no vehicle plies...where no one will ever own one.School and electricity though were remote possibilities.
After I talked to the patient,I clicked a few photographs and showed to them on my laptop.They all surrounded the screen searching for themselves in the picture..all of them definitely quite amazed with the gadget.
One of them told me that the last time a visitor had come to the village was around 5 months ago and he had something to do with the soil.
Perhaps he had come to conduct a survey on the Uranium reserves in this place.He probably had to do with what was underneath and had no business with who and what was above the soil.
Patricia,a renowned journalist had once called the two Lok sabha M.Ps of the state as 'Uranium ministers' when they were given ministerial berths at the centre when the rest of the M.Ps of the 5 smaller states of the North-East were denied the same.
The people were agitating against Uranium mining,then and their positions carried the rider of convincing the people. Today, we see no more agitation...the mouth of the agitating leaders have perhaps been stuffed to silence.
I have read somewhere that fusion is the ultimate source of energy and Uranium the fuel.I have also come across that the 'Nuclear deal' that was signed by the country banked largely on the limited Uranium reserves,one of which is in this part of Meghalaya.
Why is there so much darkness in the lives of people whose land will be lighting the rest of the country?
West Khasi Hills has been giving the nation tonnes and tonnes of coal every year for decades..the administration is unpardonable for the lack of development in this district.It's not about asking for quid pro quo but it's criminal to keep people in such abject poverty and deprivation when we are boasting that we are a global power,an emerging economy.
Is India truly shining? Are we merely talking of the glittering street lights of the towns and the cities? Are we only counting on the hypermarkets and condos that signify urban India today?
As I bade good-bye to these people, knowing fully well that I will never be back to this place again, I saw a beam of hope in their eyes. They must be thinking that I will be bringing something good for them.
Six months after..as hopes decline, they will be talking among themselves that a man came,said he was a doctor,talked to a patient and went away...nothing changes anyway.
