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NEW DELHI: Tens of thousands of private doctors in India’s Rajasthan state on Sunday continued their weeks-long strike in protest over a right to health bill, action supporters of the law claim goes against the spirit of medical care.
The landmark bill, which was passed in the state assembly on March 21 and is the first of its kind in India, aims to ensure equitable access to health for Rajasthan citizens, including the right to emergency treatment and care without prepayment at any public health institution, healthcare establishment, or designated medical center.
Under the new regulations, no medical facility, whether private or public, will be allowed to refuse a person seeking emergency treatment, the cost of which will be borne by the regional government.
But representatives of private medical facilities have said the bill was unclear on how they would be compensated and what constituted an “emergency condition,” among other concerns, and they have demanded the legislation be withdrawn.
“We demand that the government should first introduce the bill in the public-sector hospitals as a pilot project, not in private hospitals. The government should tidy up its own hospitals,” Dr. Sanjeev Gupta, media spokesperson for the Rajasthan chapter of the Indian Medical Association, the country’s largest association of medical workers, said. The association has been supporting the protests.
“Be it Rajasthan or the country, it’s the doctors who treat patients, and if you are bringing a right to health bill why is there no consultation with doctors knowing well that in the state 70 percent of healthcare facilities are in the private sector?” Gupta added.
“This is not the right to health bill but a right to kill doctor bill.”
Rajasthan is home to almost 10,000 private healthcare facilities and around 50,000 doctors.
Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Saturday urged doctors to call off the strike, claiming the continued protests were politically motivated. On March 27, tens of thousands of private and public doctors rallied on the streets in the state capital Jaipur to demonstrate against the bill.
“We have already acceded to most of the demands of the doctors and those who are opposing are politically motivated. We will address all the concerns of doctors at the time of the implementation of the bill,” Gehlot told a press conference.
With private health facilities shut throughout Rajasthan, some patients have had to seek care in neighboring states.
Dilip Rathod, a Rajasthan-based professional, told Arab News that one of his relatives had become ill at the weekend and had to drive to Haryana state for treatment. He said the bill was “good relief” for people of the state.
“It’s not easy for common people to bear the expensive cost of treatment in private hospitals. The bill gives common people some dignity to their life and hope that they can survive serious disease,” he added.
Dr. Abhay Shukla of Public Health Campaign, a national network of civil society organizations and movements working for health rights, described the bill as progress for public health.
“This is a one-of-a-kind bill in India which no other government has introduced,” Shukla told Arab News. “The bill is an attempt to strengthen the public health system at a time when the central government is not focusing on public health.
“There is no need to withdraw the bill. Doctors are holding 70 million people of Rajasthan to ransom. That is not acceptable.”
Prof. Rama V. Baru, community health expert at New Delhi-based Jawaharlal Nehru University, told Arab News that the ongoing strike highlighted the profit-oriented mindset of the private sector.
“It is all about how well-entrenched the private sector has become in the medical sector. They don’t want to be regulated or controlled in any way. For them profit first is the whole idea,” she said.
Medical professionals were meant to “serve the people,” Rajasthan-based social and child rights activist Dr. Kriti Bharati told Arab News.
“It’s not meant to earn profit, but doctors are striving to earn profits,” Bharati said.
“Doctors take an oath to serve people, and this should be their primary focus.
“The right to health bill is a good initiative to provide health services to all and we should all support that.”
COLOMBO: Thousands of people from several communities in Sri Lanka came together for iftar over the weekend, an occasion they say conveyed unity and optimism in a country that faced economic collapse and political upheaval in the past year.
Muslims make up less than 10 percent of Sri Lanka’s 22 million people, who are predominantly Sinhalese Buddhists.
As the minority community celebrates the holy month of Ramadan, which involves fasting during daylight hours, around 3,000 Sri Lankans gathered in the capital Colombo on Sunday for the fast-breaking evening meals of iftar.
“We organized this to bring unity amongst all communities. We always believe that humanity is beyond religion,” Rizan Nazeer, a chief organizer of the event, told Arab News.
The gathering, which was organized by the Sri Lanka Muslim Civil Society, the Soup Kitchen Sri Lanka and the Torrington Walkers’ Team, aims to “show the unity in this country,” he said.
Former Sri Lankan president Maithripala Sirisena, who was among the participants, said the iftar event “will contribute a lot to strengthen intercommunal amity.”
Sirisena told Arab News: “Ramadan is a holy month for Muslims but today we enjoy the companionship of members of all communities for a common goal.
“This joint initiative by all communities is a good signal that the country will forge ahead in the future.”
Calm has returned for the most part in Sri Lanka, an island nation facing its worst economic crisis that, only last year, saw months-long mass protests which eventually ousted then President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
Sunday’s iftar event was a celebration of diversity, said Thailand’s Ambassador in Colombo Poj Harnpol.
“What I witness, I see people from all places and all walks of life to join together and it’s a blessing that we have a pluralistic society,” Harnpol told Arab News. “I’m so glad to be part of the national unity.”
For Y.M. Jayaratne, a Sinhalese Buddhist, seeing the larger Sri Lankan community come together was a boost of optimism.
“I can see all the communities are involved here, it’s a good sign of how this country is coming up after difficult times,” Jayaratne told Arab News.
“We had our ups and downs as a country but we have to come out, we have to look forward,” he said. “I’m glad that I take part in this evening with the community, with my friends.”
LONDON: A Syrian refugee has been elected mayor of a village in southwest Germany.
Ryyan Alshebl, 29, arrived in the country in 2015 after fleeing the conflict in his homeland. He settled in the region of Baden-Wurttemberg, where he has worked for seven years in the town hall in Althengstett.
Standing as an independent candidate on a platform of improving access to digital services, he won an outright majority in the mayoral contest in the village of Ostelsheim on Sunday, securing 55.4 percent of the vote.
He described his win as “sensational,” and praised the village as having “set an example for broad-mindedness and cosmopolitanism for the whole of Germany.”
Originally from As-Suwayda in southwest Syria, Alshebl — a non-practicing member of the Druze religious minority and the son of a secondary school teacher and an agricultural engineer — was forced to abandon his studies in finance and banking because of the war.
He is the first Syrian refugee to have applied for asylum in Germany between 2015 and 2016 — of whom there are at least 430,000 — known to have been elected to office.
He is also among just 1.2 percent of Germany’s elected mayors to be from a migrant background, as opposed to 27 percent of the country’s total population, according to Mediendienst Integration.
The most high-profile German politician with Syrian roots, Frankfurt’s Mayor Mike Josef, was born in Qamishli in 1983 but moved to Germany with his family soon after as political refugees for their Christian faith.
LONDON: The UK is preparing to deport Nepalese security guards who were airlifted from Afghanistan amid the Taliban takeover after helping to protect Western embassies in Kabul, The Guardian reported on Monday.
Eleven Nepalese and two Indian guards, several of whom risked their lives protecting British personnel and embassy staff in Kabul, were detained as a result of government decisions on their immigration statuses and warned of their imminent deportations.
After being transported to the UK following the Western withdrawal almost two years ago, at least two of the former guards were granted indefinite leave to remain, while others were left waiting for decisions on their immigration status.
The pending deportations are believed to be the first concerning people who were successfully evacuated from Afghanistan.
The UK government has previously faced criticism over its apparent failure to evacuate those who have been forced into hiding in Afghanistan and neighboring countries due to the Taliban’s rise to power.
One of the 13 guards, 37-year-old Bam Bahadur Gurung, worked in Afghanistan for more than 10 years, partly serving as a security guard at the British and Canadian embassies in Kabul.
In 2016, several of his colleagues were killed in a suicide bombing that targeted consular guards.
Gurung was evacuated to the UK in the wake of the Taliban takeover and was provided with a hotel stay in London alongside other people who were evacuated.
He was employed by the hotel as a worker and was told that his application to resettle in the UK was “progressing” early last year.
However, he was informed by authorities several months later that his evacuation had only been a “gesture of goodwill,” and that he was ineligible to stay in the country over a long-term period.
On March 27, Gurung and the 12 other former guards were arrested and detained by the UK Home Office. He is now being held at an immigration removal facility near Gatwick Airport.
Gurung said: “I was getting ready for work when I was arrested. I am in a state of shock and am very sad about what the UK has done to me.
“I helped to protect British Embassy staff in Kabul for many years. None of us have criminal records. My dreams is to remain in the UK and serve with the British Army.”
Jamie Bell, who is legally representing Gurung and another Nepalese national in the same circumstances, said: “After being allowed to build a life in the UK, they have been betrayed and detained. Those responsible should be ashamed of how they have been treated.”
A UK government spokesperson said: “We remain committed to providing protection for vulnerable and at-risk people fleeing Afghanistan and so far have brought around 24,500 people impacted by the situation back to the UK.”
LONDON: The East London Mosque and London Muslim Center has been hosting more than 800 people a day for iftar during Ramadan as people in the UK grapple with a cost-of-living crisis and high inflation.
Officials at the mosque, one of the largest in Europe, reported an increase in the number of students and refugees from countries including Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan partaking of food this year as economic conditions made it harder for them to make ends meet.
The soaring cost of energy, the war in Ukraine, and the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, plus shortages of salad and other vegetables during February, saw UK inflation rise to a 45-year high of 10.4 percent during the month.
In addition, pay increases for many British workers have not kept pace with rising prices and some struggling households in the UK were reportedly turning to food banks for help.
Sufia Alam, head of programs at the mosque, said the iftar meals that it provided were “crucial for our communities” this year, more than ever.
“With inflation rising above 10 percent, many families are struggling to make ends meet, and our iftars serve not only as a means to break fast but also as a way to alleviate financial pressures on those in need.”
She noted that the mosque’s food bank, funded generously by public donations, continued to support more than 100 families in the local community.
Dilowar Khan, the mosque’s director of engagement, pointed out that the center had always been a place where people gathered and the iftar meals provided every Ramadan “exemplify this spirit of unity and togetherness.”
He said: “As we face challenging economic times, we are committed to providing nourishing iftar meals to our community, fostering a sense of belonging and promoting the values of compassion and generosity as taught by our faith.
“We will continue to support our community whichever way we can through these tough times,” Khan added.
The mosque also provides iftar meals to the needy abroad through its charity partners.
Muslims donate more money to charity during Ramadan and anyone can sponsor an iftar meal at the mosque for £3 ($3.72) a meal.
LONDON: UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Home Secretary Suella Braverman have been warned to avoid stigmatizing British Pakistanis and Muslims following controversial comments ahead of the unveiling of a new taskforce to tackle sexual abuse, The Independent reported on Monday.
Braverman last week said high-profile cases of sexual grooming gangs, which operate across the UK, are primarily composed of “groups of men, almost all British Pakistani.”
The government has pledged a slew of new measures to crack down on grooming gangs, but the opposition Labour Party, the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, and academics have warned the home secretary to avoid singling out ethnic or religious groups.
When unveiling the latest measures, Sunak pledged to avoid “political correctness” regarding ethnicity while tackling grooming gangs.
The new taskforce aims to bring together a range of law enforcement groups to target sexual predators. Ethnic data will be used as part of police investigations into grooming gang cases.
However, NSPCC CEO Sir Peter Wanless told the BBC that the gangs, as well as sexual predators, “do not just come from one background.”
He warned the government to avoid “creating other blind spots” by “raising an issue such as race.”
Sabah Kaiser, the ethnic minority ambassador for the independent inquiry into child abuse, said it is “very, very dangerous for the government to turn child sexual abuse into a matter of color.”
On Sunday, Braverman accused Labour councillors of failing to take action on grooming gangs over fears of being branded as racist.
In response to her comments, Labour leader Keir Starmer said: “The vast majority of sexual abuse cases do not involve those of ethnic minorities and so I am all for clamping down on any kind of case, but if we are going to be serious, we have to be honest about what the overlook is.”
He added: “Ethnicity is important and nothing should get in the way of investigating and prosecuting child sexual exploitation. But if you look at the overall figure that is, you know, a relatively small element of it.”
Academics including Ella Cockbain, an associate professor at University College London, also condemned Braverman’s remarks.
Cockbain told BBC Radio 4 that Braverman “is choosing to mainstream hard-right talking points, and to push discredited stereotypes. That is really dangerous and reductive. It allows other offenders to get away with abuse.”
Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, accused the government of failing child sexual abuse victims.
She said: “Only 11 percent of child sexual abuse cases ends with a charge — down from 32 percent seven years ago — and the court delays have got far worse with victims waiting years for justice.”