SM tipster Olinda (followed by several others) sent us this depressing article from the New York Times highlighting corruption at its worst. Behold:
Just as the painful ordeal of childbirth finally ended and Nesam Velankanni waited for a nurse to lay her squalling newborn on her chest, the maternity hospital’s ritual of extortion began.Before she even glimpsed her baby, she said, a nurse whisked the infant away and an attendant demanded a bribe. If you want to see your child, families are told, the price is $12 for a boy and $7 for a girl, a lot of money for slum dwellers scraping by on a dollar a day. The practice is common here in the city, surveys confirm.
Mrs. Velankanni was penniless, and her mother-in-law had to pawn gold earrings that had been a precious marriage gift so she could give the money to the attendant, or ayah. Mrs. Velankanni, a migrant to Bangalore who had been unprepared for the demand, wept in frustration.
“The ayah told my mother-in-law to pay up fast because the night duty doctor was leaving at 8 a.m. and wanted a share,” she recalled.
Cynic that I am, I could actually imagine a man whisking a kid away and demanding a bribe. When a woman (who may have children of her own) does it, all hope seems lost. The article goes on to describe the fact that this sort of corruption has infected basic services that stretch from the cradle to the grave. The following quote also caught my eye because it sounds like a thing you sometimes hear about the U.S. healthcare system:
“The poor not only are paying much more of their incomes to get the same medical services as the middle and richer classes, but they are also discouraged from seeking basic medical care because they can’t afford it,” said Daniel Kaufmann, director of global programs at the institute.
The article ends by foreshadowing the obvious end to such rampant corruption:
Every month, [Mr. Hanumanthu] said, he must pay off city workers who threaten to confiscate his pushcart. He has no choice, he said. How else would he make a living? Last summer, he saw what happened to a vendor who refused to move when the city workers told him to. They overturned the man’s cart, cracking the motor. He was out of work for three months.“I’ve studied up to 10th grade and passed,” he said bitterly. “I try to earn a decent living, but because of all the demands, I’m tempted to rob and steal to make money fast. I’m fed up with life.“
Be sure to click on the multimedia presentation to the left of the article.
“In Bangalore, India, a Cuddle With Your Baby Requires a Bribe”. A very enlightening article indeed! Unbelievable amount of corruption that has spread like a cancer through the mainstream population in Bangalore, India. What an eye-opener. My sympathies can’t stop flowing to those poor souls. That is news indeed and deserves the front page on any newspaper with a humane conscience. The news though can lead to shock and awe only amongst the ignorant and I am not very sure of how much such ignorant can help. I am not sure why but I grow skeptical when I think of why the NY Times has to post such an article on Bangalore. There are worse things I can vouch for are happening in Bangalore and other parts of India that make for catchy headlines. What purpose does this article serve especially with the headline it has? Trying to analyse the root cause of corruption and highlighting it is welcome, maybe listing its history in India is welcome too. But this article can only lead to lots of excitement on reading the heart wrenching headline followed by loads of pointless sympathy and pity. The country doesn’t need any of the pity or sympathy.
Sanjit,
The Bangalore article is a part on-going series at NYT.
THE HIDDEN SCOURGE Articles in this series examine the impact of corruption on democracy and economic development around the world.
Other articles include Russia, Latin America, and Africa.
A point to be noted is that there existed a tradition in India when most of the deliveries were done by mid-wives or ayah’s of giving a small to large gifts after a sucessful delivery. But what we are seeing over here is that tradition being taken to the extreme and ayahs demanding bribe from helpless souls.
As far as the bigger question of corruption goes in the third world corruption can be seen on both levels i.e the street level and boardroom level. While curroption at street level hits the common man the hardest as he/she experiences that first hand. The second kind of curroption the boardroom one is rampant in almost all the countries.
Shocking !!! But I think this is due to the following reasons IMO. 1) Lack of resources in the government for healthcare. You know, India has universal health care. So if a person goes to a government hospital they get FREE care for most of the part.
2) IGNORANCE in the poor people about availability of healthcare facilities provided by the government.
3) Even middle class/ upper middle class people (Indian) that I met in US had no idea that there is FREE care in Government hospitals.
4) There is a perception that Government hospitals provided sub-standard care.
My sister and Jijaji are doctors working in a government hospital. They told me once that by the time poor patients get to the government hospital they have already been to one of these private hospitals to get “better” care, but when the doctor over there realizes that this case is too complex they advise the patient to go to the CIVIL hospital. So when the Doctors at CIVIL hospital gets a chance to treat these poor patients, their situations are dire.
4) Unscrupulous doctors running “private” clinics in poor areas are also one of the causes for the situation mentioned in NYT article.
True, bribery and corruption have been a long standing problem in our cities. But the article does offer a light at the end of the tunnel – both bureaucracy and civic minded individuals getting together to improve the situation.
It does make for depressing reading, but I guess the first step is acknowledging the problem and then moving onto solutions with other people who share your proactivity (?)
The New York Times doesn’t represent an American viewpoint anymore. I am privy to the information that the whole publication has been outsourced to an agency in Bangalore – the articles, editorial, et al. Why the ghost-writer in Bangalore should write such bilge about his own country is something that needs further investigation, however.
Was reading my neighbor’s paper in the train this morning. I was thinking Damn – I hope it is place else – not India. But it is huh? Damn!!
Celia Dugger is New Delhi bureau chief for NYT. Not a ghost wrtiter.
http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/international/20020123begwer-audio.html
Nothing is going to get better in India, if there is no open discussion and criticism.
I am so sick at tired of ORIENTALIST views of a poor, ravaged, third world India, with its barbaric societal ills. Before the economic emergence of India, these were the only kind of articles ever written in the NY Times and the Washington Post.
Yes, India has problems; none of us are ignorant to this fact. This is just another in the centuries-long ORIENTALIST literature. Oh, they might outsource, build the bomb, be techies, have hot actresses BUT well le’s just face it they’re BACKWARDS.
This article brings to mind the annual US State Department Human Rights Report on offending countries…ironic how there is NEVER one on the US itself! Lately China has been compiling a Human Rights Report on the US. A MUST READ
Whats the point of being defensive about societal ills of India??? – By being defensive the predator doctors are going to go away?? – Population is going to get educated? Their ignorance about their rights removed??
No !!!! – Those who cant take criticism cant improve.
I am not too sure of how much of a fruitful debate will the article start on what needs to be done to counter the scourge. The problem with such an article is that it is usually ignored by people who are familiar with the ground realities as just another take on a long known malaise. For the ignorant it is the story of the mother that creates momentary flutter till all is forgotten. I don’t think such MSM stuff can make any difference to the society in general, not even trigger a healthy debate.
And please this is not to get defensive about any ills in India or elsewhere. Not much is hidden in this world anyways. It is just to figure out whether this article serves any purpose at all to any section of the world. Not that it needs to.
i’ve never posted before but felt compelled.
to whoever said this is just another “orientalist” article i must disagree…
i work in public health in UP and am often horrified at the lack of information, or the wrong information that circulates about healthcare. beliefs that governments hospitals cost so much money (which yes, they are free, but patients must pay for all their own supplies plus often bribing attendants for actual attention from doctors), and also are victims of misinformation about common illnesses in their area, as well as the prevalence of HIV/AIDS.
we see this and try to create new health care systems and provide information, accountability, to stop these abuses (in my work we focus on hiv+ patients). so the fact that people would be interviewed for this article? were disgusted by it enough to say something? that is progress, and commendable.
a lot of these corrupt practices won’t stop until the “common” people admit it is happening to them (and can say they have had enough). so highlighting this is not orientalist… it is another step to get people to talk, in publc.
yes, it can serve some good because the journalist going from hospital to hospital, house to house, asking questions about this practice shed light on it, and can often be the beginning of people standing up to it. wouldn’t be the first time.
Theresa, I noted before that there exists ignorance about Govt. hospitals costing money and other such things. Coming from you who actually work in the field gives it more credence than me saying it.
The hospital in the NYT story is one of these PRIVATE hospitals, run by individual doctors. So if they charge money to see the baby, isnt is CAPITALISM??
This hospital is in no way obligated to provide FREE care to anyone. So why is this a bribe?? and not just “cost” of getting “better” treatment