News of officials and doctors being arrested on charges of corruption and bribery in relation to covering up deficiencies of medical colleges during inspections, is neither surprising nor revelatory. It was always an open secret. Medical colleges are huge institutions and are, rightly so, governed by, stringent norms and standards for recognition. Colleges are known to ‘arrange’ temporary faculties and personnel to meet the norms and also to pay regular bribes to regulatory bodies and officials to overlook such deficiencies. It is a common practice, that faculties draw salaries just for allowing the use of their names.
The current case concerns an institution run by a religious organization, rather a ’Baba’. CBI claims to have raided more than 40 locations across the country. By common sense the’Baba’ has done no wrong, and has been just unlucky. While the case is simple and open but the malaise is deep, eating away the soul of our system and society. For a long period until liberalization era started in the nineties, higher education especially technical and professional education was entirely run by the government. Inadequate but standardized. Suddenly after liberalization, the market spelt out the need for more skilled professionals and the government accepted its inability to provide. Market took over. Education became the most precious commodity. Engineering colleges started mushrooming in the mofussil towns, often in tin sheds without labs and libraries. Degrees were offered and companies could train them after recruiting. The malaise spread to medicine late. Partly due to its huge capital requirements and partly for the stringent standards enforced by the MCI. As late as 2000 there were only about 15000 mbbs seats across the country, the number now is about ten times that. Huge educational campuses sprung up, and almost all big politicians and godmen jumped into it. It served many purposes. It absorbed much of black money as capital, gave them an image of social service, associated them directly with a large number of students and their families and built recession resistant businesses. The government gradually began exiting from higher and now education per se. Hundreds of thousands of schools have been closed on the pretext of inadequate enrollment. Universities are being put into self financing mode. The new education policy aims to hasten the process. The middle class and the aspiring lower classes are now tightly entangled in the web. Available professional seats means they can’t opt for anything else and huge costs means the students are indebted, either to the market or to their parents, from the start. All educated young people are thus subjugated and rendered incapable of protesting. Medical colleges are the crowning glory of all such campuses and each must have one to be taken seriously. Quality of education is the first casualty. No doubt most of our technical graduates are unemployable.
The spirit and soul of the times has been chained. Community life is lost. Depoliticization of the society, especially the middle classes is destroying our republic. Along with communal and divisive strife, it is sucking the life blood of our nation.
A malaise far deeper than visible
