The trading of charges currently on between the Indian Institute of Public Health (IIPH) Shillong and the Director Health Services have exposed the underbelly of a system steeped in intrigues and machinations difficult for the ordinary citizen looking for health treatment to comprehend. The IIPH Shillong was established by the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) in collaboration with the Government of Meghalaya (GoM). The primary aim of the Institute is to redress the limited institutional and systems capacity in public health in the northeast region of India. In other words IIPH is meant to train different batches of public health personnel and to conduct research on important health challenges affecting large sections of the public such as Tuberculosis, Malaria amongst other public health concerns. The IIPH Shillong is training doctors from different states of the North East. It has within it a dedicated faculty of international renown, some of whom could easily be employed in the best institutions of the country and abroad. Any State Government with a modicum of wisdom and vision would have assisted the IIPH by providing it with physical infrastructure. In terms of other resources the IIPH has managed to procure grants from several international bodies which have enough faith that the institution would do a good job with research and training of young public health professionals.
The foundation for the IIPH Shillong was laid by then Minister in the UPA Government, Jairam Ramesh. Even at that time Ramesh had stated that Assam was very keen to get the IIPH located in that state and was ready to offer land and other facilities. Any other state would have welcomed the IIPH with open arms. Unfortunately, in Meghalaya the Institute is facing several hurdles and is being frustrated at every step of the way by a coterie in the Health Department. This is a very unhealthy trend and the government of the day should take this up as a challenge to defend an institution of national importance.
IIPH has a long term vision of scaling itself into a University provided there is adequate collaboration from the State to provide it with the required infrastructure. It is unethical on the part of the Director of Health Services to launch into a tirade against the Director of the Institute by labelling her a ‘self-proclaimed’ director. The director has the necessary credentials from a renowned institution in the UK. This humiliation should not be tolerated by the Government. No one in the Government should side with bad behaviour. Several youths from Meghalaya are studying at IIPH Shillong and will soon get jobs at different government or private health facilities. Does Meghalaya not want this? Does it want to throw away even this opportunity because of petty politics? The MDA Government should show that it actually runs the government and is not being run by vested interest groups.
