India’s National Doctors’ Day (INDD) falls on July 1 every year in honor of Doctor Bidhan Chandra Roy; Dr. Roy is said to have treated thousands of patients and inspired millions to adopt the profession. Remarkably, doctors act as frontline warriors and endeavour hard to gift us with the excellent and effective healthcare according to their knowledge and expertise. To them, we owe much.
Make no mistake, government employees must do their duty faithfully and ensure their availability to public— at least during office hours. Doctors are duty- bound to treat patients with an approach —patients come first. But a story!
Just a few days back, this author got imprisoned in a hospital corridor, waiting for a doctor to return from a room —a restroom. Asked, the waiting patients whispered that the doctor had retired into that room, leaving them in that nonstop wait. Even her subordinate staff would mutter things— to cover up her offence. No return of the doctor though.
Disappointed, I again requested the doctor’s staff to call her back, arguing our health and time are also important. I knocked at the doctor’s ‘restroom’. No answer. In disgust, I said she is misusing her powers at the expense of the poor patients there. Another patient/ attendent rushed to the room and knocked at it. With sad looks, he returned.
Minutes later, the doctor dragged her feet out and into her ‘duty room’. Angry, she scornfully said to me, “You should have stayed silent, behaved like an ‘educated person’ and never objected [to my duty fraud] “Her toxic words forced me to walk out with no medical checkup of my patient and with a stigma that ‘we teachers are strange people’.
Somebody may argue that the doctor could have been out for lunch. Agreed. But upon return, as a responsible public servant, she could have explained her too long absence and not lost temper. Is public time and pain not important? A patient was crying in pain while waiting. Who cared?
A government employee/ public servant must stay impersonal in the discharge of the duties and undisturbed before critics. Despite wasting our time, the doctor did not feel guilty! Jammu and Kashmir has not always been blessed with conscientious public serving officials. Why? Two big reasons: One, our political environment has remained chaotic most of the time; two, the predatory and self-seeking attitude of a rising number of employees.
No government employee can claim that his/her service is not as important as that of a teacher and that he/she can afford to neglect duty. For example, if a road has potholes and is unsafe for driving, the employee concerned is duty bound to report the issue to the higher authorities, not ignore it saying it is not important. And if a water works employee notices that water supply is not working well, he/she is required to take the action. Just assuming that my duty is not so important is a punishable offence.
Similarly, teaching profession is a gateway to nation building ; there is no room for negligence, but that does not mean that teachers should just watch the violation of their civic rights anywhere.
Apart from teaching children, teachers have worked shoulder to shoulder with the health workers during the COVID vaccination programme and have went from door to door to get people vaccinated. Are these acts by the teachers not a reflection of their spirit of service and sacrifice? No monetary compensation can be a substitute to this dedicated service from the school teachers.
For election duty or census, it is the school teachers who are asked to perform the duty. Although this is a very risky undertaking in Kashmir context, the teachers perform it at the expense of their comfort and even life. One may argue that the teachers are government employees and can be used to work in any capacity, but are teachers the only government employees at the grass roots level? Yet, we mistreat them in public institutions by delaying the redressal of their issues to make them do rounds to an institution or go from pillar to post as if they were criminals.
Most importantly, 90% teachers prove very good neighbors and responsible citizens. Never has a teacher taught students to smoke, abuse others, steal things or indulge in corrupt ways to harass public. Never, has a good teacher been seen smoking or doing any other mischief to harm society; there are government employees who smoke publicly and at times use children to buy cigarettes for them. These employees have been caught doing other social evils as well besides using foul language in public.
Good teachers and for that matter better educated people do not throw dust or garbage on to roads or streets to create a public nuisance. Very rare cases of teachers can be found at public courts. Additionally, teachers, especially the school teachers do not work for the consideration of extra income. Whenever public visits schools for any piece of work, teachers do it without any greed. No bribe or any other gratification. We have seen teachers leaving their own chair for an elderly person visiting a school or writing an application for a person visiting a school. Not a single penny is demanded in return.
Good public service cannot be done by an outdated mindset having no respect for public hardships/ needs and time. Change according to the times is essential for improvement. The kind lady doctor needs to know that a change in the attitude is real education. Let’s hope, INDD this time makes a new beginning and not ‘paisa’ but patients get primary focus.
(Author is a teacher by profession and columnist. Emai:[email protected])
