Skip to main content

Bio-terrorism? Public health Bill 'ignores' pollution, malnutrition, people's insecurities

Counterview Desk 

Protesting against the proposed Public Health Bill, Gujarat-based physician-activist Dr Maya Valecha, who heads a civil rights group seeking nationalisation or socialisation of healthcare, Jan Andolan, has insisted on the need for “social management of healthcare services and pharmaceutical companies under public ownership.”
In a statement seeking support on her phone number 7016002688 on messaging services, Dr Valecha said, the Bill should not be allowed to be passed as it could enslave us, underlining, “The New Public Health Bill to be tabled in monsoon session is not for our health or welfare”, adding, it is people who should decided what they for the healthcare sector, not the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Text:

The new Bill is all about virus and bio-terrorism. However, health issues in our country are related to malnutrition, pollution, economic and social insecurities. Nothing is being thought of, done for that, nor enough budget is being allocated to correct these issues.
But to implement the measures suggested by WHO, an entity funded primarily by pharmaceutical companies, a Bill is being drafted that can violate our bodily integrity, put an end to our freedom, and recourse to the judicial process is also being curbed.
What we gather from media is that this Bill will be the bill brought in 2017 plus lockdown will be defined in more detail.
The Bill of 2017 has many tyrannical provisions. If any infection is merely suspected, entry into your home or office, doing testing on anyone, medicating anyone, vaccinating anyone, closing down markets and schools, sealing buildings and destroying, disinfecting or killing your pets or animals can all be done.
It is not just when a disease has spread but when a disease or infection is simply suspected then also any or all of these actions could be taken. There is no mention that when WHO declares a pandemic, our country’s health experts would be consulted for final decision. Our experts in fact had said No to total lockdown of our country during the covid episode.
It is clear that lockdowns, masks, social distancing do not stop the virus spread. And still, they want to have it in a Law, to keep bringing such measures repeatedly.
Hence, we have sent a letter with thousands of signatures, where doctors, lawyers and social workers have signed and sent it to the Prime Minister, Health Minister, Chief Justice of India, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare.
We have asked that…
  1. Before any Law is passed there should be a wide-spread public debate among people and there should also be a citizen’s referendum.
  2. Other than allopathy we have many indigenous treatments in our country, such as ayurved, homeopathy, siddha, unani and all these deserve equal importance. They should be made available in all government hospitals and be used in pandemics as well.
  3. The existence of a pandemic in our country will not be declared by WHO. That would be decided by our local medical experts and our public opinion after studying symptoms and number of those infected, deaths here in the country.
  4. Unreliable tests such as the rt-PCR that has not been even fully approved, will not be forced onto the people.
  5. No medicine, injection or vaccine can be made compulsory for anyone, anywhere.
  6. Lockdowns will never be used as it has absolutely no benefit and has created extensive damage to socio-economic wellbeing.
  7. There will not be any Treaty with WHO as it is proved by now that it is funded by Private Pharmaceutical Companies and their allies and therefore works as per their direction.
These days the government is passing Bills without any discussion with the public or even in parliament. Hence, we need to spread this awareness in advance, build a public opinion and warn the government that neither we will allow such a Bill to be passed nor will we allow any Treaty or agreement with WHO. Instead, our country’s health care system and drug companies will be taken away from private ownership, brought under social ownership and will be under the direct management of people with participatory democracy.
During the corona time and before too, it has been observed that there have been widespread instances of open scamming and looting by private hospitals and pharmaceutical companies. To come out of this problem permanently, we need nationalisation/ socialisation of healthcare system and drug companies under the direct democratic control of people.
Free healthcare services of the highest quality is our basic right.
It is not possible with private ownership existing parallelly. Hence, we need to build a wide-spread opinion and movement.
After socialization, government will have to tax super-rich with inheritance tax and wealth tax to provide enough funding for healthcare services. However, the full management of hospitals and pharmaceutical companies will be by public committees that will be answerable to the public meetings on a monthly basis.
We need to bring our life in our own control. A lot of hard work needs to be done in the right direction, the only way to prevent the total enslavement of future generations.

Comments

TRENDING

Defeat of martial law: Has the decisive moment for change come in South Korea?

By Steven Lee  Late at night on December 3, soldiers stormed into South Korea’s National Assembly in armored vehicles and combat helicopters. Assembly staff desperately blocked their assault with fire extinguishers and barricades. South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol had just declared martial law to “ eliminate ‘anti-state’ forces .”

70,000 migrants, sold on Canadian dream, face uncertain future: Canada reinvents the xenophobic wheel

By Saurav Sarkar*  Bikram Singh is running out of time on his post-study work visa in Canada. Singh is one of about 70,000 migrants who were sold on the Canadian dream of eventually making the country their home but now face an uncertain future with their work permits set to expire by December 2024. They came from places like India, China, and the Philippines, and sold their land and belongings in their home countries, took out loans, or made other enormous commitments to get themselves to Canada.

A groundbreaking non-violent approach: Maharishi’s invincible defense technology

By MajGen (R) Kulwant Singh, Col (R) SP Bakshi, Col (R) Jitendra Jung Karki, LtCol (R) Gunter Chassé & Dr David Leffler*  In today’s turbulent world, achieving lasting peace and ensuring national security are more urgent than ever. Traditional defense methods focus on advanced weapons, military strategies, and tactics, but a groundbreaking approach offers a new non-violent and holistic solution: Maharishi’s Invincible Defense Technology (IDT). 

This Indian British Marxist blamed USSR's collapse in 1991 on Khrushchev's 'revisionism'

By Harsh Thakor*  Harpal Singh Brar, British Indian Marxist scholar and communist leader, has passed away in Chandigarh. He was 85. He was a lifelong supporter of socialism, Marxism, and the working class. He will be remembered among British Communists.

EVMs: Govt must prove beyond reasonable doubt it's upholding mandate for free, fair polls

By Jerald D’souza  With the growth of India’s population, concerns about electoral fraud associated with ballot papers, also began to escalate. In 1989, the People’s Representation Act was amended to enable EVMs to prevent electoral fraud. In 1998, EVMs made their debut during legislative assembly elections and for the first time for general elections in 2004. However, criticisms against the EVMs and questions about their integrity have been raised by political parties, civil society and the general population. On 2 February 2024, there was a noteworthy demonstration of dissent where numerous individuals, including Ambedkarite advocates, legal professionals, and other members of civil society  convened at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar demanding the prohibition of EVMs. In 2024, the Supreme court had slapped down a petition to return to paper ballots on the basis that machines give “absolutely accurate results” unless human bias maligns them. The court stated that it was open to testi...

Chalapathi's death in encounter suggests Maoists' inability to establish broader mass support

By Harsh Thakor* The Maoist movement experienced a significant loss during the Ramagudem encounter on January 21, with the death of Chalapathi (Pratap), a Central Committee member of the CPI (Maoist). His death, along with 15 others, marks a major setback for the movement. Reports suggest that his location was revealed to security forces through a selfie with his wife.

Why do we mostly resist and refrain from communicating on sanitation topic?

By Nikhil Kumar, Mansee Bal Bhargava* According to UN SDG Progress report (2022), at the present moment no targets for SDG 6 are expected to be met by 2030. In 2022, 2.2 billion people had no access to safe drinking water and 3.5 million lacked safe sanitation. Approximately 50% of the world’s population was reported to have been under resourced in enough water for part of the year and a quarter of that population was living under “extremely high” water stress. Add to it, droughts have affected over 1.4 billion people between 2002 and 2021.

Govt of India asked to work for release of 217 Indian fishermen detained in Pakistan since 2021

By A Representative  Members of the fishing communities from Gujarat and Diu, Union Territory, held a press conference in Ahmedabad, urging the Union Government to take proactive measures to secure the release of Indian fishermen currently detained in Pakistan. Presently, 217 Indian fishermen, mostly from Gujarat and Diu, are held in Pakistan’s Malir Jail. Of these, 53 have been incarcerated since 2021 and 130 since 2022.

34 Dalit families in IIT Kanpur without toilets in Open Defecation Free India

By Sandeep Pandey   When Indian Institute of Technology at Kanpur was set up in 1959, two villages were uprooted. The farmers were given meagre compensation for the standing crop. No compensation was given for the land to build this institute of national importance. Each family was promised a job but what was not told to them was that one would require specialised skills to get a job at IIT. Some members of these families were, of course, absorbed for menial work. Some washerfolk families were also invited from outside to live on campus to take care of the laundry needs of students, staff and faculty members. One of these men was cajoled by IIT authorities then to forego a regular employment at IIT and instead take up clothes washing work.

अल्पसंख्यक कार्य मंत्रालय का बजट निराशाजनक: 19.3% अल्पसंख्यकों के लिए मात्र 0.0661% ठोस आवंटन

- मुजाहिद नफ़ीस*   1-2-2025 को भारत सरकार द्वारा संसद में वर्ष 2025-26 का बजट वित्त मंत्री निर्मला सीतारमण जी ने पेश किया| इस वर्ष का बजट 5065345 करोड़ है जो कि पिछले साल के संशोधित अनुमान से लगभग 7.39% की बढ़ोतरी हुई है| वहीं अल्पसंख्यक कार्य मंत्रालय का बजट मात्र 3350.00 करोड़ है जो कि कुल बजट का 0.0661% लगभग है|  पिछले साल 2024-25 में 3183.24 करोड़ था|