As city ails, Mum's the word at BMC meetings

RTI findings reveal that councillors almost never ask the civic body all-important questions at health committee meetings about measures taken to address the rising incidence of various diseases in the city

In the world's largest democracy that is supposedly built on the foundations of dialogic exchange, elected representatives appear to be subscribing zealously to the motto "Mums the word."

This is the shocking revelation made by data compiled by PRAJA foundation, an NGO which works towards good governance by seeking information through the Right to Information (RTI) route.

The organisation's investigations have revealed that of the 36 members appointed to the civic health committee for the year 2010-11, 17 odd councilors remained mute at all 14 health committee meetings. This was in a year when the city witnessed a record number of 20,000 malaria cases, which resulted in 137 deaths.

Of the 47 questions asked by various councilors in the meetings held in 2010-2011, only two questions were related to malaria and other monsoon ailments.

Most of the questions instead pertained to health infrastructure, including hospital upgradation, treatment costs and availability of medication.

Ironically the councilors evinced more interest in the measures taken for the dead rather than the living, going by the fact that 12 of the 47 questions asked were related to cemeteries and crematoriums. Five others were regarding licensing of eateries.

Shocking apathy
"The main motive behind digging out this information was to evaluate whether the councilors really deal with issues that directly affect the public's health, in these meetings.
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Malaria and others diseases like diarrhoea, hypertension, diabetes are taking a heavy toll on the lives of Mumbaikars.
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But somehow, these issues take a backseat at the meetings, and are upstaged by matters that only indirectly affect the people. This is data that we have received from the civic body itself," said Nitai Mehta, managing trustee of the foundation.

Ailing city
According to statistics compiled by the PRAJA foundation, 23,317 malaria cases were reported in the 2008-09 financial year.
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The numbers swelled to an alarming 39,898 in 2009-2010, and touched a whopping 78,448 in 2010-2011. These figures unequivocally illustrate the manifold manner in which incidence of the deadly disease has been on the rise, between 2008 and 2010.

Cases of diarrhoea have also seen a steep rise in the last three years. Between 2008 and 2009, 81,321 cases of diarrhea were registered in public hospitals and BMC dispensaries. The number increased to 11,6295 in 2009-2010. In the 2010-2011 financial year, the numbers had risen to 1,25,999.

Calm of despair?
In the 12 meetings conducted by the health committee in the year 2009-2010, only 30 odd questions were raised by the committee members, most of them concerning staff behaviour.

The findings also reveal that of the 36 members who were part of the committee, 21 did not bother to raise a single question. In the 16 health committee meetings conducted in the period 2008-2009, only 33 questions
were raised by councilors present.

Of the 36 members, 23 members did not feel the need to ask a single question. Most of the queries that were asked pertained to infrastructural concerns and staff behaviour.

Surprisingly, not one of the questions raised at these meetings, over a period of two years, pertained to the measures taken by the civic body to eradicate diseases like malaria, diarrhoea, diabetes, tuberculosis and hypertension, which claim many lives every year.
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It was only in the meetings held in the 2010-11 session that only four councilors raised questions about the diseases plaguing the ailing city.

"In course of our interaction with the councilors, we discovered that many of them are not aware of the protocol that is to be followed in these meetings, and do not know how to put forward questions. We planning to organise training sessions for our representatives," added Mehta.

Why so quiet?
MiD DAY spoke to those councilors to find out why silence reigns in the meetings over the last three years.

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The number of deaths due to malaria in the city this year

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NAME: Minal Juwatkar
"There is no particular health problem plaguing my ward. So I ask no questions."