When Arvind Kejriwal was sitting on a hunger strike, along with Anna Hazare, a thousand thoughts were going through his mind. How is the system to be changed? He had given up his coveted IRS post to work in the slums of Delhi.
“If you want to change the system, why don’t you get elected? If you really represent the will of the people then come through the election process,” a senior Congress leader had challenged him sarcastically.
On December 28, 2013, Kejriwal became the chief minister of the national capital region or Delhi, a post he would continue to occupy for three more terms. This is a massive achievement, considering his non-political past.
Mohalla, or community, clinic is a revolutionary concept in primary healthcare. It relies on the state to provide cheapest/almost free delivery of medical care locally to save the common man’s time and resources. The mohalla clinic reduces pressure on the existing health infrastructure, leaving it free to focus on those with serious medical ailments and emergencies.
The success of Kejriwal’s initiative lies in the numbers: 16 million people, who otherwise would have stood in lines waiting for medical care and would have clogged the existing system, got treated at these clinics. The simple yet crucial step was to differentiate people’s ailments into primary cases __ like fever, cough, cold, blood pressure, diabetes _ and the more serious ones requiring extensive treatment. Often, ailments were detected at early stages and cured, thereby reducing the disease burden on the state’s health system.
This scheme has proved to be a boon for Delhi citizens. There are more than 100 free tests and 200 free medicines available in every mohalla clinic. Medical records of individuals are stored in iPads and the care offered is personal and instant. That jobs are created in the process is a welcome byproduct of this scheme.
That the AAP government, under the leadership of Arvind Kejriwal, continues to win elections proves that good governance and political results go hand-in-hand. Today, several states are trying to follow the Delhi model and set up their own mohalla clinics.
Now Kejriwal has come up with a ‘Mohalla Bus scheme’, which will likely revolutionise transportation in Delhi. Kejriwal can be satisfied that he has achieved what he had envisioned, ie, bring healthcare, education and other basic necessities to the forefront of political discourse. Other political parties that had ignored these basic issues earlier are now vying with each other to include these in their political agenda.
The author is spokesman of the Aam Aadmi Party. Views expressed are his own.