Cardinal Baselios Cleemis, president of the Indian bishops' conference, greets Federal Minister for Finance Arun Jaitley at the bishops' Christmas dinner in New Delhi on Dec. 13. Church officials have welcomed Jaitley's announcement of a new medical college for Jharkhand state. (Photo by Bijay Kumar Minj)
India's federal government has announced plans to establish a high-level medical college in Jharkhand, which tribal and church leaders say will help the tribal-dominated state's sagging health care system.
Federal Finance Minister Arun Jaitley recently announced plans to establish two autonomous public medical colleges of higher education in Jharkhand and Gujarat.
The two new All India Institutes of Medical Sciences will add to the eight existing institutes in the country which train doctors, nurses and paramedical staff besides providing micro-specialization in health care.
The plan "will be of great service to the poor who are otherwise left to fend for themselves. But it should be affordable to all" Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas, secretary-general of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India, told ucanews.com.
Bishop Mascarenhas, who was the auxiliary bishop of Ranchi Archdiocese, based in the state capital, said that the facility should provide care to all. "Sometimes [the facilities] can prevent the poor from availing their services," he said.
In Jharkhand state, more than than 60,000 people die every year from tuberculosis and nearly 80 percent of births take place at home leading to a high maternal mortality rate of 371 for every 100,000 births. Only 52 percent of the state's children are fully immunized.
The state, created in 2000 to protect tribal interests, has not had a new medical college until now even though its population increased to 33 million in 2011 from 25 million in 2001. The existing three medical colleges also lack adequate infrastructure and facilities, reports show.
District-level medical facilities also suffer from an acute shortage of doctors. The state's 194 community health centers have only 22 physicians, 61 gynaecologists and 19 paediatricians, according to the government's "Rural Health Statistics in India 2012."
Hiralal Alawa, assistant professor of rheumatology at New Delhi's Institute of Medical Sciences, said that the government plan "will be of great help to the poor as the facility will be under the control of the central government and will be above local politics."
Alawa, the founder of Jai Adivasi Yuva Sangathan, a tribal movement, said that All India Institutes of Medical Sciences generally offer the best doctors and facilities in a state at affordable fees.
Gladson Dungdung a tribal activist from Jharkhand state said "institutions offering education and health care have become a business now so we have to get rid of these ill practices."
He added that, before offering medical college, the government should first improve the situation of primary health care centers in villages because they are "in pathetic condition."