Health For All – A Global Lie

Countless meetings have happened in famous destinations across the world. Countless goals have been made. Ambitious targets have been set. Health for all has been promised. But how can we achieve health without making any efforts to tackle the hate that surrounds us?

Hate has become more and more prominent over the years. Certain groups have borne the brunt in which religion, skin color, and caste have been the most crucial deciding factors. Recent events around the globe have made one thing obvious - keeping people healthy is not possible if hate is not addressed first.  

Enough evidence exists to show that skin color, caste, gender, ethnicity, and religion dictate not just a person’s access to healthcare but also the quality of healthcare one receives. These factors ultimately decide who gets to live and who ‘deserves’ to die. But what if these factors become the reason why one person falls sick or suffers in the first place? 

Recent wars around the world have proved that the value of life is different from religion to religion, country to country, and color to color. International help poured in when Russia invaded Ukraine. Leaders from all over the world visited the war-torn country putting their personal safety at risk to show their support for the impacted nation. The United Nations organized multiple meetings to pass resolutions and restrict relations with Russia. Various other (failed) attempts have been made to stop the war which started on 24th February 2022 and is still on.

However, the response has been (un)surprisingly different in the Gaza crisis. The United States of America, the land of Avengers and Justice League, vetoed a resolution for a HUMANITARIAN PAUSE (!!) to deliver life-saving aid to millions in Gaza. Yes, a PAUSE, it wasn’t even a resolution to end the war. The United Kingdom and Russia decided to abstain. Various other moves have been vetoed since then. Hospitals have been bombed, and children have been murdered but global leaders have held their silence and ignored all war crimes.

Unfortunately, we don’t have to look beyond India in search of hate. Countless events over the past decade have highlighted the toxicity of hate and how it is destroying the social fabric of the country. With all this in mind, all the research, and scientific advancements seem pointless to me. What is the point of all that we do if hate still wins and continues to multiply itself? One does not have to be in Palestine or Ukraine or Manipur to be affected by this hate. It is all around us and thanks to social media it is closer than ever. 

As Manipur still burns, I wonder who all are covered under ‘ALL’ when they say ‘Health for all’. Is there a tiny asterixis above ‘all’ that I have failed to notice?