Saturday, January 25, 2014

Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'India should become totally socialistic and not capitalistic' that was published in Newsband

India should become totally socialistic and not capitalistic
Reasonable insurance schemes should cover all the workers and their dependents who exist in big number in India. Also the workforce which enjoys any social protection in India is very less. The thing is the Acts that are made for the factories should also apply to transport undertakings, hospitals, newspapers, the hospitality industry and educational institutions. There is need to enlarge the scope of medical services. These services should be provided to workforce which lies even outside the formal sector.
India must adopt a system of universal health coverage that is entirely tax-funded and cashless at delivery. There should be a comprehensive approach to health care that transcends conventional forms of illness response and insurance schemes that divert huge resources into expensive hospitalised treatment. The emphasis should be on prevention, primary care and augmenting the social determinants of health such as basic sanitation, clean drinking water, minimum wages and primary education.
Only a healthy population can make India an economic power-house. We need Universal Health Insurance. Better to give free food, healthcare, education, housing, stipends to everyone and make everyone be in Armed Forces or National Service or working.
Clean Water, Food, Nutrition, Hygiene, Clean Environment, primary education etc. are fundamental requirements, which cannot be ignored or inadequately addressed by any country which is aspiring to become a developed country.
We seem to be only tinkering the problems here and there just to derive maximum publicity and thereby create a hype and get away with it. How long will this go on? The emphasis seems to be only on window dressing thereby neglecting the fundamental issues which are truly daunting. Taking care of these will bring about an improvement in the quality of life which will automatically take care of many of the things.
We should focus on solutions to the root problems not just on their reflections. Indians are a confused lot. They are not sure whether they should adopt a socialistic approach like the Western countries or develop a capitalistic attitude like Russia and China. Indians should realize soon that it cannot have both sides of the bread buttered. Capitalism and socialism cannot coexist. We should be totally socialistic.

Our government becomes socialistic before elections and talks of capitalism after elections. How long will this dumb charade continue to be played?

1 comment:

  1. Hi Sir
    That is a very realistic post. But whatever we demand, the final change can only be done by the Government and honestly Indian health insurance need to see a lot of change

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