Gorakhpur child deaths: This tragedy had long been in waiting

If political leaders refuse to accept public health then community leaders must speak out

Unless the chronic deficiencies in the country’s public health system are rectified, tragedies like Gorakhpur will keep happening.

In his very realistic but cynical article on Independence Day, Pratap Bhanu Mehta laments that the children in Gorakhpur were “fated to die because in this republic our priorities have gone awry. The crisis in India’s health system is not the biggest secret in the world. Yet this crisis does not precipitate the slightest public anger, does not engage our collective intelligence, or move our conscience.”

I too feel shaken by this tragedy, as a citizen of India, as a doctor, as