The trend of underfunding healthcare in Karnataka has continued in the 2024-25 session as well. Right now around 4% of the total budget has been allocated for healthcare, similar to last year, while the recommendation stands at 8%. This underfunding is a direct consequence of the neoliberal economic reforms brought about by the Congress government as India became a member-state of World Trade Organisation in 1995. This opened up basic human needs like healthcare and education to the whims of private investment. It caused massive fund cuts at every level, shutting down of public clinics/hospitals, inaccessible healthcare for the majority, contractualisation of healthcare jobs, over-burdening of doctors, and a host of other issues. At this moment in Karnataka, despite the five guarantee schemes, a basic need such as healthcare, is still lying in shambles. Recently, the state has been rocked by a series of protests by healthcare workers. Hence, it is important to note the general grievances that exist in the health sector.
In the first week of May, there was a call for strike given out by the unions of ‘108’ ambulance workers demanding that their service provider EMRI Green Health Services clear off the pending wages at a rate of Rs. 30,000 per month. Roughly 3,500 drivers and staff nurses statewide, who are a part of the three major associations of 108 ambulance services, hadn’t been paid their salaries in full since December last year. After a high level meeting with representatives of the union with the health ministry at Arogya Soudha where assurances were given to the unions regarding timely disbursal of wages, the strike was called off. Whether the promises are kept by the government in the long-run, remains to be seen.
Close on its heels, 50+ ward attendants were abruptly sacked from Victoria hospital without any kind of notice. Some of these workers have been working there for more than 20 years but were never made permanent. After this illegal termination, the workers sat in protest inside the hospital premises for more than a week, demanding justice. The Bangalore police of course swooped in to initially sanitise the protest by removing banners and stifling slogans, and followed it with forceful detention of more than 50 workers under the charge that the protest breached legality for happening outside Freedom park. Despite such crackdown, the workers continued building pressure on the management and the ministry of labour, ultimately leading to their reinstatement. Unfortunately, the problems pertaining to wage payment that existed earlier continue to persist with the hospital trying to brush off all responsibilities. The reinstated workers are organising themselves under the red banner of AICCTU to carry on a long-term struggle. Following persistent complaints surrounding the functioning of Victoria Hospital, and to assess the quality of services provided there, Karnataka Lokayukta Justice BS Patil paid a surprise visit and inspected the facility on 29th July, along with Upalokayuktas justices KN Phaneendra and B Veerappa. The hospital was found to be lacking basic amenities, including a shortage of doctors, other staff, and life-saving medicines. The hospital authorities blamed an inadequate allotment of funds by the government for this ‘pathetic’ condition of one of the largest public health facilities in the state.
Anger has also been brewing among budding doctors who are made to work for more than 8 hours at meagre stipends. In July, this year, the intern doctors of MS Ramaiah dental faculty took out a protest demanding a hike in stipend from Rs. 2000 to Rs. 18000 at par with BDS interns from other colleges. There was a partial victory with the Ramaiah authorities increasing their stipend to Rs. 4000 a month. Earlier in August, resident doctors across Karnataka under the banner of Karnataka Association of Resident Doctors started an indefinite strike demanding a hike in stipend. The doctors demanded a hike at par with resident doctors elsewhere in the country who were getting Rs. 90,000 to 1 lakh per month as compared to a monthly stipend of Rs. 45,000 and Rs. 55,000 in Karnataka. Protests were held across Karnataka including inside Freedom park in Bengaluru. In the face of statewide pressure, the CM conceded to a 25% hike stating financial constraints on the part of the government.
As recently as on 17th August, on a nationwide call by the Indian Medical Association to shut Outpatient Department services, doctors across Karnataka struck work. The strike was in response to the brutal rape and murder of a resident doctor in RG Kar hospital in Kolkata, demanding justice for the victim and workplace safety. The wave of protests continues to rock the nation exposing a crumbling scenario where the masses are left without affordable healthcare, mushrooming of private ‘health shops’, drug mafias running insidious rings inside hospital premises, and the entire sector being underfunded by the government.
Within this neoliberal system, the people and the health sector workers can even to achieve some reforms, united struggles are essential. Unless these economic demands graduate into a political demand to end this profit-driven system, replacing it with a society that can give universal and equitable healthcare to its people, there can be no end to this sectoral crisis.
