Public health in India is a disaster: Amartya Sen

October 17, 2014

New Delhi, Oct 17: The ancient Nalanda University, renowned across southeast Asia and beyond, had a school of public health and a Chinese student who studied there around the 6th century AD had a lot of admiration for the state of public health in India, which today is in a state of "disaster", said Nobel laureate and renowned economist Amartya Sen.

Sen, who is vice chancellor of the revived Nalanda University that has begun classes from Sep 1 this year, said the Chinese scholar Yi Jing who studied public health for many years in Nalanda University in the 6th century "had fond admiration for the state of public health in India" and he found that it was comparable to China and "praised public health in India" which is now "a disaster".

Delivering a talk on "The Relevance of Nalanda in the Contemporary World" as part of the Nalanda Distinguished Lecture series, the economist said the revived university had plans to start a school of public health and also one on Buddhism and on linguistics.

Later, in answer to a question, Sen said that in India the government spends about one percent of the GDP on public health in comparison to China's three percent.

"We need to go beyond" to provide good public health to the people, he added.

He said that in many parts of the world that are poor, international lending agencies like the World Bank and IMF "discouraged" such countries from spending on healthcare until a decade ago "and instead wanted them to send on developmental expenditure".

He said that "one of the reasons why an epidemic like Ebola has become so difficult to control is that many of the healthcare establishments that could have come up did not come up in order to qualify for aid from international organizations, though that is not the position now".

Sen has earlier too deplored the state of public health in India.

The revived Nalanda University was inaugurated by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj last month.

Classes started with two schools - School of Ecology and Environment Studies and School of Historical Studies - Sep 1 with 15 students and half-a-dozen faculty members.

The university is to come up in Rajgir, 12 km from where the ancient Nalanda University stood till the 12th century when it was razed by Muslim invaders.

Sen said there were some attempts to see the ancient Nalanda University as part of the Silk Route, through which trade and commerce was carried out between the East and West between the 3rd century before Christ and the 3rd century AD.

He also said that the "gigantic influence of the Nalanda trail" was still not grasped by the world and that the UN had not given it the recognition it deserved.

To a question on why Indian universities failed to make the mark among the top universities in the world, he said "we should not lose our heads" over the matter but focus on "raising quality".

He said while the IITs were very good, they lacked teaching in humanities subjects that was counted by the rating bodies.

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Can’t call any part of India ‘Pakistan’: SC closes proceedings against Karnataka HC Judge

News Network

September 25,2024

New Delhi: The Supreme Court today closed proceedings against Karnataka High Court Judge Justice Vedavyasachar Srishananda, following his public apology for controversial comments made during court sessions. Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, leading a five-judge bench, stated that the decision was made in the interest of justice and the dignity of the judiciary.

Justice Srishananda during a recent court hearing. Justice Srishananda, while addressing a landlord-tenant dispute, referred to a Muslim-majority area in Bengaluru as "Pakistan" and made a misogynistic comment involving a woman lawyer. His comments, which went viral on social media, prompted the Supreme Court to seek a report from the Karnataka High Court, which was submitted shortly after the incident.

"No one can call any part of territory of India as 'Pakistan'," Chief Justice Chandrachud said. "It is fundamentally against the territorial integrity of the nation. The answer to sunlight is more sunlight and not to suppress what happens in court. The answer is not to close it down."

The Supreme Court had taken up the case on its own and had sought a report from the Karnataka High Court over the controversial remarks. A five-judge bench led by CJI Chandrachud, along with Justices S Khanna, B R Gavai, S Kant, and H Roy, had on September 20 expressed the need for establishing clear guidelines for constitutional court judges regarding their remarks in court.

"Casual observational may indicate personal biases especially when perceived to be directed at a certain gender or community. Thus one must be wary of making patriarchal or misogynistic comments. We express our serious concern about observations on a certain gender or a community and such observations are liable to be construed in a negative light. We hope and trust that the responsibilities entrusted to all stakeholders are discharged without bias and caution," CJI Chandrachud said today.

The Supreme Court bench said that when social media plays an active role in monitoring and amplifying courtroom proceedings, there is an urgency to ensure judicial commentary aligns with the decorum expected from courts of law.

Videos of Justice Srishanananda were viral on social media.

In one video, he refers to a Muslim-dominated locality in Bengaluru as "Pakistan" and in another video he was seen making objectionable comments against a woman lawyer. In the second incident, Justice Srishanananda can be heard telling the woman lawyer that she seemed to know a lot about the "opposition party", so much so that she might be able to reveal the colour of their undergarments.

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