(EDITORIAL) If one doctor in India for every 2,000 of the population has never been even statistically comforting, what is to be said when epidemics have the country in their grip? Bihar continues to focus attention to itself when the victims of malaria alone are estimated at 2 to 3 lakhs demanding immediate treatment. When doctors cannot be produced overnight, the responsibility of the Government to tackle public health problems is weighted with an urgency which the leisurely proceedings of the Health Survey Committee do not satisfy. Of what use is it to multiply plans to accumulate wealth as the post-war reconstructionists aim, if men decay?

That more people died in the aftermath of famine than of the famine itself should decide that public health is far too vital a matter to be subordinated to the other interests of the Government. Cholera and malaria have taken their toll all over India but there is little to encourage the hope that the incidence is subsiding. Cholera may have been checked in certain districts but malaria still continues with its ravages. Paucity of doctors, inadequacy of medicines and insufficient hospitals must leave a famished and ill-nourished population with the certain prospect of death. — Dawn Delhi

Published in Dawn, September 15th, 2019