During the COVID pandemic, many so-called standard operating procedures – SOP – did not work as expected. Frequently there was a need for monitoring and during entry and exit of patients, their situation deteriorated. Thankfully, the media, newspapers and the TV, had an important role to call their attention, interviewing patients’ family members to analyse the wrongdoings, so that they could be fixed.
A very important duty and one that must be part of our daily habits is protesting when something is wrong. A society with a culture of “let-it-be” is condemning itself to a high degree of mediocrity, while protecting laziness, the late arrival to work and incompetence.
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We are prone to excusing others when there is nothing to excuse, instead of demanding of them fair action. Maybe we do not demand of others because we are used to protecting ourselves with excuses when we are at fault. We are too complacent in India. That is why we accept everything as normal. We suffer the delays and the mistakes “with patience”.
We need to eliminate excuses like, “the boss did not come today to sign the paper; it was not possible with so much workload; the computer is down”. These are unacceptable justifications. When they happen, we must complain and if possible tell the story to a friendly journalist. If he’s committed to change the lazy way things are done, he will see an opportunity to write and deliver a service to society, asking “why did the chief not come? Who substitutes him? Why tomorrow and not now?”
When this becomes a normal attitude in all citizens, the country gains accountability, an image of seriousness. When one goes to a hospital and the doctor is not yet working at 10am, or the nurses are not attending to the waiting patients, we must call their attention. This is an opportunity for the media to be an effective vehicle for helping every public service to bring about the right discipline of work, to become punctual and quick.
When I visited Singapore I was reluctant to believe all the good things I had heard about it. Nevertheless, I was surprised to observe the level of professionalism everywhere. People prepared, doing well, working quickly, not wasting time. And zero corruption.
In some European countries too, negative habits had crept into public services. Any paper or certification used to take one or more weeks. When a new director saw that, he defined a maximum number of days to get the paper or the response ready. And hence a new order was established.
There is a nice book ‘The Beautiful Tree’, where the author compares a variety of institutions of secondary education, in poor countries. He was quite puzzled after visiting some schools in the poor neighbourhood of Hyderabad, to find that the public schools, in spite of being free, with free books, good premises, gyms, with graduate teachers, etc, had few students. While at the same time, some private schools despite working in bad premises and without gyms, were full of children whose parents readily paid a fee for their children’s study there.
When the author mentioned this discovery to the bureaucrats of the Education Department, they unanimously claimed that he was absolutely wrong. It could never be so, because there were no fees in the public schools that had good premises, good teachers, books gifted, etc.
He insisted that they go with him and meet the parents of those poor children studying in the private schools. It was a shock for the bureaucrats to confirm that the parents wanted the children in the private schools, by paying the fees and not in the public ones! Why?
In fact, the public schools “had no owner”. No one was responsible to set an agenda, and demand serious and disciplined work from the teachers. There were absentees, many imposed by the local politicians. The children often had no classes; there was no enthusiasm for learning, no one to motivate them, it was boring.
On the other hand, the private schools had a Principal, who knew what was being done in all the classes, during sessions for children’s performance, etc. The teachers were dedicated, they prepared their classes well and utilized various ideas and experiments to motivate and arouse the interest of the children. The children enjoyed and learned; they were happy. Though the teachers were paid less, they transmitted a real desire to learn. The children’s parents, in spite of being illiterate, understood clearly their children’s progress, and felt that it was worth their sacrifice to pay the fees.
In public hospitals, schools, and other public centres we have very good professionals, dedicated and well trained. The main need is of competent directors that are able to organize the whole set up where everyone can put their capacities to work, to give the best to the clients, without any kind of discrimination.
In a case I co-wrote, ‘Aravind Eye Care System’, I explain how only 40% pay their bills and the remaining do not pay or pay a symbolic fraction, as they are poor. However, the efficiency, along with the perfection, is simply amazing (13 hospitals in Tamil Nadu, currently). Each doctor on average does more than 2,000 cataract surgeries a year, because the system is prepared for the surgeons to work well and with concentration. The Indian average is 220 interventions.
A positive reference and praise from the media is a stimulus for all those who work diligently. A negative report raises a strong alarm, telling the top person that he/she needs to work much better.
Each citizen must take his rights seriously to make them effective and demand every time they are not respected. We and only we are the culprits for things not getting better.
