India’s health minister ‘committed to Bangladesh’

India’s new health minister says he is “thoroughly committed” to Bangladesh and its people.

“We are very open. We have said that we are going to have co-operation in this region,” Harsh Vardhan told bdnews24.com on Thursday in a brief interview on the sidelines of the WHO meeting.

A doctor by training, Vardhan said it was important to co-operate with each other to fight common health challenges the two countries faced.

He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi is “a visionary leader”.

“He will work for the people of the region,” the minister said. “We have good relations with Bangladesh and it’ll always remain good.”

Vardhan came to Dhaka on Sep 8 to attend the WHO regional meeting. It is his first visit to Bangladesh after the Modi government took over in May.

Bangladesh and India have been co-operating in many areas since 1971, but the two sides embarked on an MoU for the health sector collaboration only last year.

But no joint working group meeting has been held yet.

Health Minister Mohammad Nasim sought greater partnership in this sector when the two leaders met.

“I am fully committed to the health minister as a person, as a country to Bangladesh, and also to the people and particularly to health.”

He cited the signing of an MoU on cooperation in the field of traditional systems of medicine and homoeopathy on Sep 9 and a regional agreement to eliminate kala-azar, a sand-fly-borne disease, and more would be coming up in future.

He said during his meeting with his counterpart’ issues of further co-operation had been discussed.

In particular, he said, Bangladesh sought support in training its workers at new laboratories in India.

“…We are going to help them (Bangladesh health ministry) in a big way. There is no doubt about that,” he said.

“We can learn from experience, share experiences, and help in research and share research findings, offer scholarships and create chairs in various universities,” he said.

He also shared his own vision of India’s health sector and the initiatives he had taken within 100 days in office.

An ENT surgeon, Vardhan is a popular political figure in Indian politics.

He has never lost an election, whether to the Delhi Assembly or the Lok Sabha since joining the BJP in the early 1990s.

He also served as an advisor to the World Health Organisation and has won several national and international awards.

But he received wide accolades for his pioneering campaign for polio-eradication.

He was the health minister of Delhi state when he launched the polio-campaign that had a rippling effect in India.

He wrote a book, “A Tale of Two Drops” with inspiring stories of the trendsetting campaign.

Twenty years ago, India accounted for 60 percent of the world’s polio cases but is now polio-free.

“People have a lot of apprehension. But I thought if we can reach ballots to everyone on the day of election and if the whole lot of professionals get engaged in election process why can’t the whole system engage itself to protecting life and make sure to put two drops of vaccine in (every child’s) mouth”.

“We sought everybody’s support and everybody supported us.”

“When India did it, then most of the countries in south-asian region took it up. Even Nelson Mandela coming out of jail took up a ‘kick polio out of Africa’ campaign”.

“It really gave confidence to the rest of the world”.

It also made him confident about accepting new challenges.

“I think we can finish measles now, we can control TB, malaria, eliminate kala-azar,” he said, “Everything is possible”.

But he said the biggest challenge facing the region was the non-communicable diseases (cancer, heart ailments) for which, he said, “all have to work hard to ensure early diagnosis”.

He said a massive movement had to be launched for an early diagnosis of these diseases.

“We are in the process of preparation to launch ‘massive offensive’ against such diseases. We are going to work against malnutrition, obesity, and tuberculosis”.

New institutions were being established all over India, he said, and plans were afoot to upgrade health facilities.

“We are reviewing everything critically,” he said. “We have the strategy and know what we have to do”.

But, he said, the new Indian government would not tolerate corruption.

“We have said we will be 500 percent transparent and zero tolerance to corruption and inefficiency in the department.”

The Indian minister said his country had radically revised its policy for activities within CGHS (Central Government Health Scheme) and drug procurement.

“In each and every programme we are trying to identify what the pitfalls are and how we can improve,” he said.

Vardhan said they had identified 184 low performing districts where they would give “exclusive attention” with resources and manpower.

Doctors’ salaries would be raised to encourage them to work in rural areas.

As thousands of Bangladeshis go to India for medical treatment, he said India had become “a medical tourism hub” for the region.

“We have the best doctors in the world. If you go to America, you will find 75,000 Indian American doctors”.

From the beginning of his visit, he has been a great admirer of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Speaking at the inauguration of the meeting on Sep 9, he sought her personal support for his new role as India’s health minister.

On Wednesday, after meeting the PM, he tweeted: “Felt honoured to meet Smt. Sheikh Hasina, PM of Bangladesh today. Torchlight of democracy, bold social reformer, yet very modest and gentle”.

He said Hasina had a lot of affection for him and they had a great deal of respect for her.

“Our relationship with Bangladesh is very good. It’ll always remain very good,” he said, adding that he felt “at home” in Dhaka.