Satyamev Jayate has now completed four episodes on female foeticide, child sexual abuse, dowry and medical malpractice and each of them had four haunting songs. I still keep humming O Ri Chiraiya from the first episode, and then you have Dheere Dheere, Haule Haule from the second, Rupaiyya! from the third and Naav from the fourth. Some of the lyrics are beautiful - would like them to be available without the video link.
All these are very touching and relevant social issues. Some social scientists may say that these are known to us, but one should appreciate the fact that despite the knowledge of those working in related themes there are deep-rooted myths among people about our understanding of society and ourselves and hopefully the programme is able to address this to a larger section of the society. Hats off to Aamir Khan!
I would like to state a couple of things about the fourth episode on medical malpractice. What was shocking to me was that the current head of the Medical Council of India was unaware that a medical student has to pay 60 lakh rupees in cash to get a seat. If policy makers and decision makers are unaware of facts that are common knowledge then it is high time that they get out of their cocoon - a creation of the system that believes in protocols and hierarchies and umpteen bureaucratic layers so that the information that you have is anything, but the truth.
While the programme was discussing on some negative aspects, particularly linked with private care givers (and also because of the absence of adequate public care facilities), I thought that the programme should highlight some positive examples set by private practitioners like Dr Devi Shetty's Narayana Hrudaayalaya; lo and behold Dr Shetty was himself there. Need I say more.
Some related blogposts of mine are:
Another insightful article as always - I cannot agree more!
ReplyDeleteThanks Pragyan. I will have a look at your blog
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