Picture published in Mumbai Mirror
Woke up to heart breaking story in The Mumbai Mirror. This baby ought to be in an incubator. But he's in an icebox made of thermocol and kept warm by a 60 watt bulb.
The newspaper reports: "TheThe boy's parents sold off their belongings, including a TV set, and managed to fund the treatment for 20 days. However, they got their baby discharged after they could no longer afford the hospital fee of Rs 8,000 per day, and approached BMC-run KEM and Nair hospitals, where the authorities turned them away citing long waiting lists for neonatal ICU admissions.
The couple also has an eight-year-old daughter, Charmi. The boy's father, Ramesh Chauhan, 35, who works at an artificial flower store in Crawford Market and earns Rs 9,500 a month, said that the KEM authorities told him that there were 750 applicants already waiting for admissions, while the Nair Hospital's waiting list had 274 patients."
Pardon my language. But what the fuck are we doing as a nation? The other day I woke up to an almost gleeful sounding headline: India set to challenge US for election-spending record
"Indian politicians are expected to spend around $5 billion (2 billion pounds) on campaigning for elections next month - a sum second only to the most expensive U.S. presidential campaign of all time - in a splurge that could give India's floundering economy a temporary boost.
India's campaign spend, which can include cash stuffed in envelopes as well as multi-million-dollar ad campaigns, has been estimated at 300 billion rupees (2.9 billion pounds) by the Centre for Media Studies, which tracks spending."
Where does this country's heart lie? What are its set of priorities? All of the jokers in politics can outspend every other nation when it comes to grabbing power. And yet not have enough to save the life of a baby. This is why I feel ashamed to be an Indian at times.