One would imagine from the spurt of schools and nursing homes that India is bursting at the seams with philanthropists. Nothing of the kind. Education and medicare, like construction, are get-rich-quick operations to which many already rich tycoons, who made their original fortunes trading in jute, foodgrain or iron, have turned. There are also the seedy street corner operators, at least in Kolkata, who throw a few rickety desks in a garage, hire an out-of-work Anglo-Indian girl if they can and call it an English-medium school. Or they rent a floor up a steep flight of stairs in some shabby back street building, cram a room with cots, hire a couple of paramedic ayahs, pay a doctor to drop in, and hey presto! there’s a nursing home.
Of course, there are grand privately-run public schools, the best of their kind. Of course, some of our private hospitals offer the most sophisticated medical facilities. But the temptation to cut corners, to make a fast buck, as the Americans say, is often irresistible. For many years, one of Kolkata’s best-known nursing homes rented out its top floor flat to a doctor in private practice elsewhere. He had no professional connection with the nursing home where he was only a tenant, but he was shown on paper as its resident medical officer. When I questioned the fraud, the matron said blandly, “Our patients prefer their own doctors!” It was as if she was speaking of a classy world beyond my ken.
One wonders how many of the 80 or more private nursing institutions in and around Kolkata or Mumbai’s 136 would survive if stringent fire audits or hygiene checks were carried out and political or other forms of protection withdrawn. Hospitals, whether privately owned or state-run, would probably fare even worse, certainly when it comes to cleanliness, but also in respect of fire-fighting equipment, regular fire drills and trained staff to carry them out.
As for schools, an extremely popular – and reputable – one is only a massive crammer. There are several sections to each class, classes are held in shifts like a factory, and there are no recreational facilities for the thousands of boys and girls. The entire physical area of the school is taken up with buildings without a blade of grass to be seen. No one complains, everyone lauds it in fact, because its pupils get the high marks without which college admission is impossible and who can hope for any kind of future in this catch-as-catch-can society without a science or management degree from a reputable institution? A bribe to get a child into such a college becomes respectable if it’s called “capitation fee”.
The building sector is, if anything, even more abused. One of the two partners in a construction firm I know is a civil engineer. So, he issues the Completion Certificate for the buildings he and his partner build but without disclosing his role in the construction. Apparently, the law doesn’t oblige him to. It’s like a murderer who is also a doctor signing his victim’s death certificate! No wonder there are so many complaints about multi-storied buildings all over the country. Demands for emergency exits, fire fighting equipment or second lifts are treated as requests for bribes … which, sadly, they often are.
That’s the problem. Official supervision is the usual answer to private enterprise-run riot. But accident after accident, tragedy after tragedy, demonstrates that those who are entrusted with enforcing the law often misuse it the most. It’s difficult to say where legitimate demand ends and harassment begins. Reports suggest that the National Building Code’s 88-page chapter on “Fire and Life Safety” is largely ignored. There’s always a way round school or hospital inspection. The Bahasa Indonesian phrase which I have quoted before, “Semunya bisa diatur [everything can be arranged]” comes to mind.
One wonders if people are becoming more corrupt. But no, opportunities for abuse are increasing as economic reform creates an upward thrusting meritocracy that demands houses, schools, hospitals and other accompaniments of middle-class prosperity. That means the accoutrements of modernism in a setting of medieval patronage and string-pulling. To blame reform would be to cut the nose to spite the face, but capitalist competition calls for a structured environment with a certain discipline, and that’s missing. We have plenty of rules and regulations, for Indian draftsmanship is among the world’s most meticulous. But the system breaks down when it comes to enforcing those rules, carrying out regular inspections and punishing offenders.
