Rajasthan doctors hold massive protests against Right to Health Act

Massive protests are raging in Rajasthan as doctors are boycotting work, and have taken to streets to express their ire against the state government.

Rajasthan doctors are demonstrating against the new Right To Health bill under which residents can avail of free OPD services from public & select private healthcare facilities. Despite widespread agitation against the Gehlot governments move, the state health minister Parsadi Lal Meena has doubled down on the decision, he has stated that ‘the bill won’t be taken back’ the bill won’t be taken back and that the protesting doctors are taking undue advantage.

As the doctor’s demand for a rollback echoes, the question that is relevant is whether Gehlot is deliberately bringing a populist policy ahead of polls.

Cong Spokesperson, Pooja Tripathi said, ”There hasn’t been a draft bill that is inclusive, futuristic & visionary for the future. A WHO 2021 report indicates that out-of-pocket healthcare expenditures in India are 48.21%, which is well above the global average of 18.1%. This directly puts 55 million Indians at risk of poor health care, with 17 people experiencing catastrophic medical expenses.”

”Mr. Gehlot has assured the striking doctors that there will be a discussion, that their concerns will be addressed, that there won’t be bureaucratic interference, and that reimbursement will be handled properly,” she added.

What we can see in this incident is that the government has failed to take the main stakeholders into confidence. Although private healthcare providers provide more than 70% of healthcare delivery in India, they are made to feel completely invisible whenever there is a policy to be made or a law to be passed. The government frames a policy & brings it out by taking only the top government doctors.

Dr. Manish Kumar, Founder of Ujala Cygnus Group said, ”Clearly, there is a lack of communication, there is a lack of trust. Right to health like the Right to education, like the right to life, is our fundamental right & we’ve been advocating for it for a long time but clearly, the stakeholders that are to deliver this right, have to be taken into confidence & they should feel that there is a transparent policy in place which unfortunately the govt like many other previous governments has failed to deliver.”