<span style="color: rgb(34,34,34);background-color: rgb(255,255,255);font-size: 15px;font-family: Verdana, BlinkMacSystemFont, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Open Sans", "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif;">Bengaluru: <span style="color: rgb(34,34,34);background-color: rgb(255,255,255);font-size: 15px;font-family: Verdana, BlinkMacSystemFont, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Open Sans", "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif;">Defending Tamil Nadu Minister and actor Udhayanidhi Stalin’s statement on “eradication of Sanatana Dharma”, Karnataka Minister for RDPR, IT and BT Priyank Kharge on Tuesday challenged and questioned BJP national General Secretary B.L. Santhosh, saying “who divided society on the basis of caste?”
<span style="color: rgb(34,34,34);background-color: rgb(255,255,255);font-size: 15px;font-family: Verdana, BlinkMacSystemFont, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Open Sans", "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif;">Santhosh while condemning the statement of Udhayanidhi Stalin, stated that “if there is an infection in somebody’s stomach, you chop off the head?”&nbsp;
<span style="color: rgb(34,34,34);background-color: rgb(255,255,255);font-size: 15px;font-family: Verdana, BlinkMacSystemFont, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Open Sans", "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif;">Priyank Kharge, referring to the caste system said, “Mr. B.L. Santhosh, I am happy that you agreed that there is an infection to be treated.”
<span style="color: rgb(34,34,34);background-color: rgb(255,255,255);font-size: 15px;font-family: Verdana, BlinkMacSystemFont, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Open Sans", "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif;">“There have been many infections for over thousands of years and it is still prevalent today that discriminates between humans and denies them their dignity of being a human.”
<span style="color: rgb(34,34,34);background-color: rgb(255,255,255);font-size: 15px;font-family: Verdana, BlinkMacSystemFont, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Open Sans", "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif;">“I am not as intelligent as you are, but please enlighten me. – Who put these rules in the society? – What makes someone more righteous than the other? – Who divided us on caste lines? – Why are certain people untouchables? – Why can’t they enter temples even now? – Who got into these practices that underline the inferior status of women? Who got into the caste based social structure, which is unequal and oppressive?” Priyank Kharge questioned.
<span style="color: rgb(34,34,34);background-color: rgb(255,255,255);font-size: 15px;font-family: Verdana, BlinkMacSystemFont, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Open Sans", "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif;">“No one intends to chop off the head, but one needs to cure the infection with equal rights and dignity to all. The only cure to all these infections is the Constitution to which your organization (RSS and BJP) and you (B.L. Santhosh) are against. You are from Karnataka, please spread the preachings of Guru Basavanna, it will help us build a more equitable society,” Kharge added.&nbsp;
—IANS

Defending Tamil Nadu Minister and actor Udhayanidhi Stalin’s statement on “eradication of Sanatana Dharma”, Karnataka Minister for RDPR

Sanatan Dharma remark row: Priyank Kharge takes on BJP's Santhosh, raises caste division issue

Amitabh Kant*
New Delhi (The Hawk): Investing in women's, children's, and adolescents' health is critical to sustainable economic growth globally. Every year, across all G20 countries, nearly two million preventable deaths occur among mothers, newborns, children, and adolescents-including stillbirths.(1, 2) In recent years, the key drivers of these negative outcomes have included the "four Cs": covid-19, conflict, climate change, and the cost of living crisis. These factors have combined to inflict immense damage on the health and wellbeing of women, children, and adolescents. Systemic discrimination and an increase in extreme weather events, food insecurity, and poverty are major causes of the lack of progress in women's, children's, and adolescents' health. In 2000, the climate emergency was already responsible for more than 150 000 deaths worldwide and an increasing global burden of disease, 88% of which fell on children. (3, 4) It is estimated that 80% of people displaced by the climate emergency are women, largely due to economic and social disparities between genders. (5) Such inequalities, environmental damage, and loss of human life and capital are profoundly distressing. As a result, women are negatively impacted, exacerbating the "feminisation of poverty." Throughout the world, women continue to earn less than men, even when accounting for similar education levels. (6) The G20 countries are home to two thirds of the global population and the actions they take collectively have global scale. The G20 must act now to improve the health of women, children, and adolescents and tackle preventable loss of life. India currently holds the G20 presidency and is committed to achieving universal health coverage and improving healthcare service delivery globally. For example, India has proposed several initiatives for digital health solutions as part of a digital strategy launched in 2021. (7) These digital tools enabled the registration of a billion people in order to monitor immunisation coverage, and the administration of more than 1.78 billion doses of the covid-19 vaccine. India has also proposed initiatives on the climate-health nexus, (8) given the ongoing impacts of the climate crisis on public health, and on efforts towards better pandemic preparedness and response. It is important to ensure that these initiatives are gender and age sensitive, for instance through prioritising women-centric digital health services. Cooperation across countries is critical for sharing good practices and addressing shared challenges. For example, effective adaptation to climate change requires both systemic approaches and, for countries to support each other's efforts in raising financial resources and building technological capacities through South-South and North-South cooperation. G20 countries must also take more substantial action to overcome the health and wellbeing challenges faced by women, children, and adolescents. Firstly, G20 countries must prioritise increased cross-cutting financing to strengthen health systems, enhance access to essential health services, and address the social determinants of health, such as poverty and gender inequality. Investments in physical and digital infrastructure through a gender lens could reduce the burden of unpaid work, improve wellbeing, create jobs, increase labour force participation, reduce the digital gender gap, bolster productivity, and foster economic growth. (9) Secondly, numerous countries are struggling to maintain pre-pandemic levels of health spending. That is affecting women's, children's, and adolescents' health worldwide. Global efforts are required to help countries strengthen their health systems by attracting more development assistance for health, and finding sustainable solutions to alleviate debt burdens. The G20 must advocate for this. Thirdly, we need robust data systems to monitor and implement policies and programmes effectively. Given that G20 countries account for approximately 85% of global GDP, two-thirds of the global population and carry significant political influence, they are well positioned to advance research and the development of new and improved health technologies and vaccines. When investing in these areas and making decisions, it is essential to meaningfully engage women, children, and adolescents. Fourthly, investing in the early years of childhood is vitally important, including in family-friendly policies and universal social protection. Such investments can boost cognitive capital-the complete set of intellectual skills, primarily nurtured prenatally and in early childhood, that determines human capabilities-leading to inclusive economic growth. (10) Tackling youth unemployment across the G20 requires developing adolescents' skills, such as digital literacy, and building technology-driven and environmentally conscious growth. The G20 must prioritise the health and wellbeing of women, children, and adolescents by making it a permanent fixture on its agenda for action. That requires dedicated, enhanced, and sustained financing, as well as more global coordination and solidarity so that no woman, child, adolescent, or country is left behind. The health and wellbeing of women, children and adolescents are essential for sustainable economic growth worldwide. This cannot be optimised without strong G20 leadership.
*India's G20 Sherpa; Helen Clark, PMNCH Board Chair

Investing in women's, children's, and adolescents' health is critical to sustainable economic growth globally

The G20 Must Act Now For The Health And Wellbeing Of Women, Children, And Adolescents Around The World

Hyderabad: Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge on Saturday said that the Modi government has been a "complete failure on all important fronts".&nbsp;
The Congress chief made the remarks during the first meeting of the newly-constituted Congress Working Committee (CWC) in Hyderabad.
He said that Congress party has been playing a pivotal role as the principle opposition party.
Kharge also said that following the success of the third meeting of Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) in Mumbai, the government has been targeting the opposition parties with the central agencies.
In his opening remarks at the CWC, party's highest decision making body, Kharge said: "Congress has been playing a pivotal role as the principal opposition party at the Centre for the past nine-and-half years with committed determination in redressing concerns and grievance of the common people."
He emphasised that the country is at "crossroads" today facing many internal challenges.
Targeting the BJP-led central government, the Congress leader said: "Modi government has been a complete failure on all important fronts, in controlling inflation, unemployment, raging violence in Manipur, widening inequality and declining condition of farmers and labourers."
"The entire nation is witnessing the tragic events still unfolding in Manipur. The Modi government allowed the fire of Manipur to reach Nuh in Haryana," he said referring to the violence in Manipur which erupted on May 3.
Kharge asserted that these incidents tarnish the image of modern, progressive, and secular India.
"Our economy is in grave danger today. Inflation and rise in prices of all essential commodities has adversely affected the lives of the poor and common people. To add to the sorrows, a young country like ours is facing the grave challenge of record unemployment. The inequality gap is continuously deepening," he added.
Taking a pot shot at the government, Kharge, who is also the Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha said: "On top of this, the Modi government is handing over the prized PSUs of the country built since independence to a few crony-capitalist friends."
Referring to the natural calamities in states like Himachal Pradesh due to floods and landslides, and many other states facing the drought like situation, Kharge said: "There is also an urgent need to provide relief to the people affected by natural calamities like floods and droughts."
On national security, the Congress chief said: "The government's alleged negligence regarding China's encroachments poses a critical danger to the country's security. However, ignoring all these fundamental issues, Modi government has this tendency to repeatedly deflect and divert attention from real issues with empty slogans."
"The government brings slogans like 'Atma-nirbhar Bharat', '5 Trillion Economy', 'New India 2022', 'Amritkaal' and now, '3rd largest economy'. These are merely hollow words meant to distract the nation from the government's failures," Kharge added.
He also asserted that the Congress re-emphasises its commitment to protect the Constitution of India, the country's democracy, and the rights of the marginalised communities. "Being the main opposition party of India, it is our responsibility to be the voice of the people."
"Today 27 INDIA parties stand together on fundamental issues of importance. After three successful meetings, the INDIA Alliance is forging ahead to combat the anti-people and anti-democratic BJP government. Perturbed at this development, the BJP government is resorting to vindictive action against Opposition parties," Kharge said.
"We also strongly condemn the government's attempts to stifle opposition in Parliament and curtail public scrutiny in the Parliament... The forthcoming Special Session of Parliament raises concerns about the ruling party's intentions," he said.
The two-day (September 16 and 17) CWC meeting is underway in Hyderabad, where the party will also discuss the poll preparedness for the upcoming assembly elections in the states of the Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Mizoram, besides the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Kharge on August 20 ended months of suspense by reconstituting the CWC, which includes senior leaders like Shashi Tharoor, Sachin Pilot, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and several others. The inclusion of Pilot came just months ahead of the crucial assembly polls in Rajasthan.
While the panel includes 39 general members, it has 32 permanent invitees, including some in-charges of state and 13 special invitees.
The list also includes presidents of the Youth Congress, the National Students' Union of India, the Mahila Congress and the Seva Dal as ex-officio members.
—IANS

Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge on Saturday said that the Modi government has been a "complete failure on all important fronts". 

Modi govt a 'complete failure' on all important fronts: Kharge at CWC

Dec 30 (The Hawk): As the echoes of 2023 fade and we step into the uncertain embrace of a new year, it's time to turn inward and reflect on the lessons etched upon our collective soul. This year was a crucible, a cauldron of challenges that forged both despair and resilience, reminding us of our fragility and our indomitable spirit.  The most resounding lesson, etched in the trenches of a global pandemic's waning wave, is the enduring power of human connection. We learned, once again, that isolation is not a shield, but a prison. The yearning for community, for the shared breath of laughter and the comfort of a touch, proved to be an unyielding force. We witnessed the heroic efforts of frontline workers, the tireless acts of kindness from ordinary people, and the blossoming of virtual connections that transcended borders and lockdowns. It was a stark reminder that in the face of adversity, our greatest strength lies not in walls, but in the bridges we build, the hands we reach out, and the hearts we open to one another.  Another lesson, carved by the flames of climate change, was the urgency of collective action. The year brought extreme weather events, rising sea levels, and the smouldering scars of wildfires. We saw the devastating consequences of our ecological neglect, not as distant threats, but as lived realities. This year, we learned that environmental sustainability is not a luxury, but a necessity. It is a call to arms for every citizen, every corporation, every nation. We must act now, not tomorrow, not with half-hearted measures, but with the unwavering resolve of a species united in its fight for survival.  2023 also unveiled the glaring inequalities that plague our societies. The pandemic disproportionately impacted the vulnerable, the marginalized, and the voiceless. The gap between the haves and have-nots widened, casting a harsh light on the systemic injustices that continue to fester. This year, we learned that true progress cannot be measured solely by economic growth, but by the well-being of every member of our global community. We must strive for a world where opportunity is not a privilege, but a birthright, where healthcare is not a luxury, but a right, and where the pursuit of happiness is not a distant dream, but a tangible reality for all.   It was a year of reckoning with the shadows within ourselves. The rise of misinformation, the resurgence of hate speech, and the erosion of trust in institutions exposed the darkest corners of our collective psyche. We learned that the fight for a better world is not just external, but internal. We must confront our biases, challenge our prejudices, and cultivate empathy and understanding. It is a continuous battle, one we must wage not only against external forces, but also within the hearts and minds of ourselves and those around us.  The year may be ending, but the lessons learned in this crucible of fire will continue to shape our collective journey for years to come.  —Vijay GarG Retired Principal Educational columnist malout Punjab&nbsp;

As the echoes of 2023 fade and we step into the uncertain embrace of a new year, it's time to turn inward and reflect on the lessons

The Echoes of 2023 Fade and We Step into the Uncertain Embrace of a New Year

Washington: For Dwight Mullen, the very public reparations process in Asheville, North Carolina, is an extension of his decades of behind-the-scenes data work on inequity.
The retired political science professor started digging into local racial disparities nearly 20 years ago – in health, education, criminal justice and other areas.  So when national racial justice protests began in 2020 following the police killing of George Floyd, Mullen said it felt to many that the time had come for something different.  "It was a summation – we've got to do something as a city and county to make it right," Mullen, who chairs the local Community Reparations Commission, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.  "It starts with enslavement, and works its way through lynching and segregation and mass incarceration and urban renewal," he said. "It ends with the disparities incurred."  The commission was appointed by the city and surrounding Buncombe County in 2022, and in October released draft recommendations it hopes will address inequalities in criminal justice, economic development, education, health and housing.  The effort is one of dozens across the country, as local communities lead a reparations conversation that has languished at the national level for decades.  Some have looked at compensating Black Americans for their ancestors' enslavement and related violence and degradation, while others, as in Asheville, have focused on more recent structural racism – and its continued effects.  "Everyone's version of reparations is different," said Brenda Mills, Asheville's director of equity &amp; inclusion.  "Some people think it's money and land, while other people see it as programs and policy changes that can begin to correct."  The complexity and emotiveness of the issue is daunting.  "We're trying to look at where the rubber meets the road now, trying to make a difference in folks' lives," Mullen said. "But there isn't much precedent. I do feel like I'm flying the plane as we're building it."
Evanston Model  A national reparations bill has been introduced regularly in Congress since the 1980s, but it passed a key committee only in 2021, and still has not received a full vote.  Nevertheless, dozens of cities are moving forward on reparations processes, alongside state efforts in California, New York and New Jersey, and by institutions such as Harvard University.  The most advanced local initiative today is in Evanston, Illinois, which in 2022 began paying up to $25,000 to Black residents or their descendants hurt primarily by zoning laws before 1969, that in effect barred African Americans from buying homes in certain parts of town, among other impacts.  "These laws created the segregation we have even today," said Robin Rue Simmons, who spearheaded the reparations program while on the Evanston City Council.  "No neighborhood school, no healthy food access, deteriorating housing and clean air, less opportunity for business infrastructure, less green space," she said.  For any redress to be legal, the city first needed to admit that past policies were discriminatory, said former city attorney Nicholas Cummings, whose job was to create a sound legal framework for the program.  "There were some obstacles because we were the first ones," he recalled. "But it had the possibility to make an impact that was unlike other legislation or policy or programs before it."  The program has been "overwhelmingly popular," said Alvin B Tiller Jr., a political science professor at Northwestern University who oversaw a study published in October.  The survey found that 70 per cent of white and 64 per cent of Black residents supported the reparations work, which has also boosted trust in government, he said.  "You have a city where people can talk about these issues, learn about them and come out on the other side and say, 'I agree with this.' That's a hugely important finding."  Around 640 people applied to the program in Evanston, a city of 78,000 that is home to Northwestern University. Simmons said results were starting to trickle in.  "We're seeing it in ways we didn't plan, in how hearts and minds have changed, and how that's begun to heal and repair our community."  Simmons is now taking those lessons national, through a non-profit called First Repair, and has worked with more than 100 communities.  "Cities are leading the reparations movement," she said. "The local reparations movement is fueling and making the case for a federal bill for reparations."  'What reparative justice can do'  U.S. public opinion has been broadly negative on reparations. While more than three-quarters of African Americans say descendants of the enslaved deserve compensation, just 18 per cent of White Americans agree, the Pew Research Center said.  Local efforts continue to see push back, with conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch accusing the Evanston program, for instance, of spending "tax dollars in a racially discriminatory manner" and violating the constitution.  Others such as Duke University economist William A. Darity Jr. Question local initiatives, noting an estimated national cost to eliminate the racial wealth gap at more than $16 trillion.  "Under those circumstances piecemeal reparations efforts at the state, local, or even individual level will be incomplete, inconsistent and inequitable," he said in an email.  "My central concern is pursuit of piecemeal reparations will lead to a circumstance where many people will conclude federal action is unnecessary."  Darity grew up in Amherst, Massachusetts, which is undertaking its own reparations process.  In September, the city's African Heritage Reparation Assembly published its final report, calling for reparations to prioritize education, affordable housing and business opportunities.  Those priorities came out of a public engagement process that was "eye-opening" in highlighting the local Black experience, said Michele Miller, a former town councilor and chair of the reparations assembly.  "We have on the one hand this very progressive town, but when it comes to being a Black person walking down the street, we've heard over and over that sense of not being represented and feeling invisible," she said.  Officials have committed to a $2-million fund, and in coming months another body will delve into how exactly residents want to use the funds.  But the process has already been the first time Amherst has sought such insights from its Black residents, said Miller.  "Local reparations initiatives, while they will never replace a federal bill, they give people the experience of what reparative justice can do for our society on a very micro level," she said, "and so can build momentum for any larger movement."
—Reuters

Discover how Asheville and Evanston navigate reparations, addressing racial disparities. From data analysis to public opinion, local initiatives aim to build momentum for reparative justice.

US cities start racism reparations as national efforts languish

Sam Ben-Meir* New York (The Hawk): In the debates we hear about the significance of universal healthcare, there is something frequently left out of the discussion. A universal healthcare system is about providing a just and accessible healthcare system, the resources of which can and should be made universally available. It is also about ending a system which systematically reproduces health inequity, in a county which spent $4.5 trillion on health care in 2022—more than any other country in the world and twice as much as the average member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). While we are spending far more, Americans generally have worse health outcomes than the citizens of rich European countries. Based on numerous benchmarks, we lag behind: for example, the US has the highest rate of infant and maternal deaths among the OECD countries; and one of the lowest rates of physician visits and practicing physicians. The Commonwealth Fund points out that life expectancy at birth in the U.S. was 77 years in 2020, three years lower than the OECD average. But what we tend to overlook is that we also have the foundational model of a truly universal system of healthcare right here in the United States, and while it can be improved upon it already functions quite well. That basic model, which as explained below already exists in this country, should be expanded into a national healthcare system. To fully appreciate why this should be done, it is helpful to understand first that health disparity exists, and it has a racial, gender, ethnic, and socioeconomic structure: the empirical evidence is massive and overwhelming. Studies have shown that racial/ethnic minorities are “1.5 to 2.0 times more likely than whites to have most of the major chronic diseases.” Black women are three times as likely to die from pregnancy-related causes as white women. Furthermore, Black Americans, American Indians and Alaska Natives have a lower life expectancy than do whites. In fact, the health gap between minorities and non-minorities in this country has in some respects widened over the decades. For example, black men had an average life expectancy of 61 years in 1960, compared with 67 years for whites. The life expectancy of blacks and whites grew over the next few decades, but so did the gap: by 1996, the gap increased to 8 years, with white males having an average life expectancy of 74 years, but only 66 years for black men. According to the Institute of Medicine, “American-Indian men in some regions of the country can expect to live only into their mid-fifties.” We should regard these disparities as what they really are; namely, forms of domination, ways of exerting power over bodies. This is not to suggest some form of nefarious conspiracy; but simply to say that the adjustable dials on the economy (taxation policy, for example) are presently set to redistribute wealth to the topmost bracket of earners, and this affects the health and well-being of people of all races and ethnicities, although minority groups suffer disproportionately. Health disparity is a powerful weapon in the savage class warfare otherwise known as neoliberalism. (In 2020, the RAND Corporation did a study of the transfer of wealth over the last several decades from the working-class and the middle-class to the top one percent. Their estimate is a staggering $47 trillion – that is how much the “upward redistribution of income” cost American workers between 1975 and 2018.) Neoliberalism is a brutal form of labor suppression, which uses health as a means of maintaining and reproducing a condition in which wealth is constantly being redistributed upwards, and the middle-class is kept in a constant state of fear of sinking into the ranks of the poor. Medical expenses are the leading cause of bankruptcies in America – and that’s according to the American Bankruptcy Institute. The ballooning costs of healthcare serve to maintain a system marked by morally unacceptable health inequity and injustice. Like economic inequality, health inequity is not a necessary feature of the contemporary world, but a political choice. We know this because such levels of health (and economic) disparity do not exist in many other countries. Need we remind ourselves that the United States is the only large high-income nation that does not provide universal health care to its citizens. England, Spain, Sweden, and Denmark, among many others, have universal healthcare systems. In some cases, such as England’s National Health Service (NHS), that system is socialized (although it has always maintained a private sector); while, in others it is not. While the British healthcare system is far from perfect, there is much we could learn from the NHS, the founding principle of which is that healthcare should be free at the point of service. The United States has, for the most part, opted instead to maintain a lucrative system of for-profit medicine, which treats healthcare as simply another commodity when it is clearly no such thing, but rather a basic human need. According to the World Health Organization, the United States spends on healthcare a higher portion of its gross domestic product than any other country but ranks 37 out of 191 countries according to its performance. The United Kingdom, by contrast, spends just six percent of GDP on health services, and ranks 18th. Although a system of universal healthcare does not require socialized medicine, we already have a working and effective model of socialized medicine in this country: the Veterans Healthcare Administration (VHA) – comprising the national network of VHA Hospitals, clinics and nursing facilities, and part of the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). In 2021, the VA maintained and operated 1,600 health care facilities, 144 medical centers, and 1,232 outpatient sites. According to the Rand Corporation: “By almost every measure, the VA is recognized as delivering consistently high-quality care to its patients.” To be sure, the VHA has had its problems, but following the Veterans Health Care Eligibility Reform Act of 1996, the VA began a systemwide reengineering which sought, first and foremost, to improve its quality of care – “the VA sought to reinvent itself by undergoing major structural and management reorganization, which resulted in its emergence as a national leader in health care within a decade.” A 2007 study observes that “VA care outperforms non-VA care on various dimensions, particularly process measures of quality that have been targeted for improvement. Patient satisfaction also appears to be higher within the VA than among those who receive care in the private sector. Numerous press accounts have extolled the VA system as a model of high-quality, efficient health care.” Like every healthcare system, there are still challenges facing the VHA – and to be sure, the population it services is relatively small compared to the U.S. population. But it is disingenuous at best to claim that these challenges are insurmountable. One of the biggest challenges facing the VHA today is that veteran healthcare is becoming increasingly privatized: It is clear, as the Washington Post observes, “that the dismantling of VA is desirable to Republicans because of what it represents: a successful, publicly funded, integrated health-care system.” As Paul Krugman put it in his NY Times column: The VHA is “free from the perverse incentives created when doctors and hospitals profit from expensive tests and procedures, whether or not those procedures actually make medical sense,” – and naturally, “Republicans are especially eager to dismantle government programs that act as living demonstrations that their ideology is wrong.” Doctors employed by the VHA are salaried and therefore without any financial motive to subject patients to avoidable healthcare procedures. Phillip Longman, renown economic journalist, and Schwartz Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation, makes a powerful case in The Best Care Anywhere: Why VA Care is Better than Yours (2007), for the VHA as providing the basic blueprint for rescuing America’s healthcare system, with its soaring costs, failure to meet significant health benchmarks, and deep structural health disparities. As many experts have observed, the VA can and should be used as a national model on which to build a system of universal healthcare, one that is just and benefits all Americans regardless of race, ethnicity, or socio-economic status. As the Rand Corporation stated, “’socialized’ or not, we can learn from the VA.” We do not have a healthcare system in the United States, but a for-profit health insurance system which functions as a form of bio-domination, of exerting power over vulnerable bodies, of keeping the poor destitute and the middle-class in check for fear of falling into the ranks of the dispossessed. Yet a universal healthcare (or better, socialized medical) system would be to the advantage of every American, because this higher burden of disease and mortality among ethnic and racial minorities has significant consequences for all Americans, as it results in a less healthy nation and higher costs for health and rehabilitative care. While the utilitarian case for universal healthcare is clear enough, we can and should also make the case on deontological grounds: that universal healthcare is consistent with respect for human dignity, whereas the commodification of healthcare is not. As Joseph Crisp argues: “Since health has dignity, rather than value, it cannot be treated as a market good…. One might choose to buy an I-Phone, rather than a television set, or one might choose to buy neither. But one has no choice but to fix a broken arm, or to undergo treatment for a life-threatening disease.” Health is irreducible to mere exchange value. The patient is not merely a healthcare consumer, and to treat the patient as a mere consumer of health services is reductive and dehumanizing. I have been teaching healthcare ethics to undergraduates since 2000. I always begin the course by taking Socrates, the father of moral philosophy, as our guide in terms of what moral philosophy should do. Socrates characterized himself as a ‘gadfly’ – and as we know was charged with corrupting the youth, and ultimately sentenced to death in 399 BC. But that is precisely our job as moral philosophers: to corrupt the youth if you will. ‘Corrupt’ has of course a negative connotation: from the conservative standpoint we are corrupting ourselves simply by questioning the claims that we are expected to take for granted. One basic claim is that any limitation on privatization is a limitation on capitalism, and any alternative to capitalism leads invariably to totalitarianism. This is for many Americans commonplace dogma. The prevailing ideology is that we don’t have to like capitalism, we just need to accept the fact that ‘there is no alternative’ (TINA)—a claim associated with Margaret Thatcher, but which is truly ubiquitous now. Consequently, we allow capitalism to infiltrate and colonize nearly every aspect of our lives, including healthcare, where, I believe, it does not belong. Fast forward 2200 years to another gadfly, this time in France: the man generally recognized as the first communist revolutionary, Gracchus Babeuf demanded a universal healthcare service, which is free of charge at the point of need. He stated, “[t]hat doctors, apothecaries and surgeons should be paid wages out of public funds so that they can administer assistance free of charge.” This is now the NHS system that England enjoys, one of the world’s best. So much for Babeuf being a fanatical dreamer. Like Socrates, Babeuf was executed, guillotined in 1797.
*Sam Ben-Meir is a professor of philosophy and world religions at Mercy College in New York City.

In the debates we hear about the significance of universal healthcare, there is something frequently left out of the discussion

We Already Have Effective Socialized Medicine: Now Universalize It

Gwalior: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday emphasised the importance of 'nyay' (justice) during his ongoing yatra, attributing the rise of hatred in the nation to prevailing injustices.
Addressing a gathering in Mohana, located in Madhya Pradesh's Gwalior district, he flagged economic disparity, social inequality, and the mistreatment of farmers and youth as key concerns. The BJP has been denying all such charges.  Gandhi, on a brief stopover for his 'Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra', criticised the adverse effects of policies like the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and demonetisation, linking them to a surge in unemployment rates, which he claimed were the highest in 40 years.  "The GST and note ban have fanned extreme unemployment," he claimed, adding "the unemployment rate now was the highest of the last 40 years."  The Congress leader further claimed that India's youth unemployment rate was even higher than countries like Pakistan, attributing it to the impact of policies of the government which had taken a toll on small businesses.
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Gandhi said while commencing his second phase of yatra he had incorporated the word 'nyay' as he claimed that hatred was spreading in the country due to injustice in economic and social sectors and injustice against farmers and youth.  He expressed distress over the diminishing recognition and benefits for soldiers, particularly those enrolled in the Agnipath scheme, who he claimed were being deprived of essential support.  Now, the Agniveers (enrolled by the armed forces as part of the Agnipath scheme) would not get the martyr status on losing their lives for the country. They won't get pension and canteen facilities as well, he claimed.  The Congress leader also highlighted the marginalised status of 73 per cent of the population, comprising Other Backward Classes, tribals, and Dalits, stating they were excluded from governance and business opportunities.  Accusing the central government of favouritism towards industrialists over farmers, he criticised the waiver of massive loans for select industrialists while neglecting the debt relief needed by farmers.  Gandhi underscored the financial requirements of key social welfare programs like the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), stressing the significance of utilising funds for public welfare rather than catering to the interests of a few.  He drew attention to the significant loan amounts written off for industrialists, funded by taxpayers, and highlighted the burden placed on the general public through taxation policies like the GST.  The yatra, a mass outreach programme led by Gandhi ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, entered Madhya Pradesh in Morena district on Saturday afternoon. It will pass through Shivpuri, Guna, Rajgarh, Shajapur, Ujjain, Dhar and Ratlam districts of the state.  The east-to-west Manipur-Mumbai yatra is scheduled to traverse 6,700 kilometres through 15 states. It aims at highlighting the message of 'nyay' (justice) while meeting common people on the way.
—PTI

Rahul Gandhi's 'Nyay Yatra' addresses economic disparity, social injustice, and farmer rights, advocating for justice amidst political discourse.

Included 'nyay' word to my yatra as injustice is spreading hatred: Rahul Gandhi

United Nations: The UN's pre-eminent body promoting equality for women and girls opened its annual meeting Monday with five male speakers in a row – a lineup that made some of the men uneasy and was somewhat baffling to the hundreds of women in the packed General Assembly chamber.
Achim Steiner, the head of the UN Development Program and the last of the male speakers, said when he stepped to the microphone: “I am very conscious of the fact that I am yet another man standing at this podium addressing you.”  He said he had two choices: “Don't speak or stand up” and support gender equality.
Croatia's UN Ambassador Ivan Šimonovic, the third male speaker representing the UN Economic and Social Council, apologized for the absence of the council's president, a woman, who had a family emergency. So, he said, “you are getting the male vice president, adding to the agenda disbalance of this opening.”  The first woman to speak was sixth in line, Chetna Gala Sinha, who represented civil society and was loudly cheered when she was called to the podium.  Sinha moved from Mumbai to a drought-prone village in India's Maharashtra state three decades ago and helped local women start a bank. Now, she said, “our women want to go from microcredit to micro-enterprise” so “there has never been a better time to invest in women” — a theme of this year's meeting of the UN Commission on the Status of Women, along with addressing poverty.  After a speech by a young woman from Malawi representing youth, the commission's chair, Philippines UN Ambassador Antonio Lagdameo, invited the head of the UN agency promoting women's rights and gender equality to take a seat on the podium.  Sima Bahous, the executive director of UN Women, began by saying: “It's great to be here. I feel the energy in the room is getting better as we see more women coming to the stage.” The audience applauded loudly.  Almost every speaker — male and female — spoke of the plight of women and girls caught in conflict, especially in the Israeli-Hamas war in Gaza.  Lagdameo, the commission chair who opened the meeting, asked participants to express solidarity with all women and girls in conflict situations. “Our thoughts are with you as we strive for peace,” he said.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the second speaker, told the meeting that women and girls are suffering most “from wars waged by men,” singling out Gaza.  He noted Ramadan, the Muslim holy month that started Monday in Gaza, should be a time of compassion, but instead families are struggling to survive. He reiterated his call for a humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza and a silencing of guns in all conflicts including Sudan.  Last week Guterres said achieving legal gender equality could take 300 years, and on Monday he cited two worrying trends: Patriarchy is regaining ground as autocrats and populists attack women's freedoms and their sexual and reproductive rights, and the domination of digital technologies and artificial intelligence by men is leaving women's needs and rights ignored.  Bahous told the commission that a backlash against gender equality is rising “with a ferocity and anger that is unfamiliar to many of us,” she said. “Peace feels painfully distant, war painfully prevalent, suffering painfully ubiquitous.”  If spoken commitments to equality could be matched by funding in budgets, “more than 100 million women and girls could be lifted out of poverty," she said. She added that closing gender gaps in employment could boost gross domestic product per capita by 20 per cent.
The UN Development Program's Steiner told the commission: “We have to face a harsh truth, gender inequality and the poverty experienced by so many women and girls are not inevitable outcomes of the crisis we face, but rather a consequence of systemic failures."  Solving the problem of over 300 million women and girls living in extreme poverty can only be solved by making gender equality “a core value” at every stage of public financing, he said.
—PTI

UN Commission on the Status of Women meets with male-dominated opening, addressing gender equality, poverty, and conflict.

Five male voices start UN body meeting on gender equality

New Delhi: The wealth concentrated in the richest 1 per cent of India's population is at its highest in six decades and the percentage share of income exceeds that of countries including Brazil and the United States, research group the World Inequality Lab found.
Since India, which won its independence in 1947 from Britain, opened its markets to foreign investment in 1992, its number of billionaires has surged.  "The 'Billionaire Raj' headed by India's modern bourgeoisie is now more unequal than the British Raj headed by the colonialist forces," the authors said.  By the end of 2023, India's richest citizens owned 40.1 per cent of the country's wealth, the highest since 1961, and their share of total income was 22.6 per cent, the most since 1922, the study, whose four authors included Nitin Kumar Bharti and Thomas Piketty, found.  In 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was elected on a mandate for development and economic reforms. His critics say his last two terms in office have been characterised by a widening gap between rich and the rural poor as India's economy grew at 8.4 per cent, its fastest in one-and-half years, in the final three months of 2023.
India's main opposition party Congress has raised the issue of Modi's government's closeness to billionaires in rallies ahead of national polls starting from April 16.  The World Inequality Lab said factors, including a lack of education has trapped some people in low-paid jobs and depressed the growth of the bottom 50 per cent and middle 40 per cent of Indians.  Data from Forbes billionaire rankings show the number of Indians with net wealth exceeding $1 billion rose from one in 1991 to 162 in 2022.  Asia's two richest men Reliance Industries' Mukesh Ambani and Adani Group's Gautam Adani are Indian.  The 10,000 wealthiest individuals of the 92 million Indian adults own an average of 22.6 billion rupees ($271.91 million) in wealth, 16,763 times the country's average, while the top 1 per cent possessing an average of 54 million in wealth.  In December, the Indian government's chief economic adviser said subsidised grain distribution, spending on education and health, and direct cash transfers via a rural jobs scheme have helped to distribute income more equally.
—Reuters

Learn about the alarming rise in wealth concentration among India's top 1%, surpassing historical levels, amidst economic reforms and widening income gaps.

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