In all my lectures on capitalism and neoliberalism, I always had an uneasy chair whenever my thoughts rushed towards the education and the health sector. Out of everything, these two sectors, in my opinion, deserve to stay out of the whole politico-economic debate and deals. These two sectors are to be fairly and honestly handled by the state with best of its inclusive intentions.
It is the state’s foremost, amongst many other important, responsibilities to protect health and education from a profitable eye and that is what central and state educational institutes are meant for. In such a theoretical imagination, it becomes quite disturbing when you hear about persistent agitations and protests in your city against fee hikes in public institutions.
Since last year, the state government of Karnataka has been working upon increasing the fees of government medical and dental colleges for both undergraduate and post-graduate courses from the academic year 2019-20, and also opening up seats to NRI students. The fee is expected to be hiked by 200% for MBBS and 500% for postgraduate medical courses. The information was declared at Karnataka Legislative Council by the minister for medical education D K Shivakumar during a question hour that took place in December 2018.
Since then, the proposal has been under debate and majorly under the light of protest. On Saturday, February 9, The All India Democratic Students’ Organization (AIDSO) along with the Medical Students’ Struggle Committee and the Dental Students’ Struggle Committee organized the Medical Student Convention in Bengaluru to discuss over the issue. Also, medicos in different parts of the state launched their protest against the proposal.
Reading through this whole issue is not just about opposing the matter of the fee hike, but analysing the under-the-blanket philosophy of the state. Introducing an NRI quota is a pure act of raising funds for the institutions, which consequently will eat up seats for the local students who have a long struggle in getting into other institutes. But before focusing on this NRI quota debate, it is important to understand the purpose of having ‘public institutes’ in the first place.
Let us face it, the economic condition of our country is a mix of great rich-poor disparities. In such an economic struggle, be it educational or medical, public institutions are the only inclusive promising spaces for the ones who struggle hard with income levels in the country. As a result, such an exorbitant fee hike and that too accompanied with cutting down the seats for the people of the state itself, and opening up for those who can bring fund is, irreverent.
From all the decisions made by the state, its motive has become clearer, that is, to not educate all, but only the ones who can afford it. The whole course of ‘questioning the government’ will take another domain of debate, if we begin talking about the conditions that shape affordability.
The protests are much needed to stage the voice of the needful. An educational space which works towards making doctors cannot be turned into a space only for the elite. This will directly have an effect on the health sector as well. In all of the course, it is important for us as citizens to realize and continuously question for whom the government is functioning? How is the public funding falling so short that such a hike has been proposed?
The whole fee hike issue is not a puny one or something that only concerns the medical students of Karnataka. It is about the larger issue of identifying the section of society on which the government focuses; what are the motivations behind any of such proposals; and what are the long term effects such a decision would end up having?
It the end, at the very least, we, as citizens, must sign up for questioning and opposing such ideas. These decisions might be irrelevant for many of us, but if gazed at from a wider perspective, these little things we do play a strong role in making us competent citizens.