Health activists demand urgent medical infrastructure

Hyderabad: Prominent activists from across India have written to president Droupadi Murmu, seeking orders for immediate government relief for the lakhs of people who continue to be impacted by the violence in Manipur two years ago.

As a mark of solidarity with the people who have been bearing the brunt of violence and social tensions, a recent initiative sought to bring the spotlight back to Manipur, by foregrounding the right to health as integral to the right to life, with the dignity of people in the State.

Manipur under President’s Rule

The National Health Rights Alliance, All India Feminist Alliance (ALIFA) and National Alliance for Justice, Accountability and Rights (NAJAR), pan-Indian initiatives of the National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) made a collective effort to mobilise solidarity for the serious public health situation in the strife-torn State and drew the attention of president Droupadi Murmu, as the State is currently under President’s Rule.

Education and healthcare systems need aid

Their key demands include ensuring effective public health infrastructure, personnel, services with safety and appropriate budgetary allocation in the valley, hills and relief camps across Manipur.

Stating that Manipur has a longer history of sporadic violence, the letter stated that the conflict since 2023 has critically undermined its framework of essential services, in particular, the education and healthcare system.

Universal health rights

“Damaged hospitals and clinics have halted necessary health services and drained supplies. Threats to health workers’ safety have created severe staffing shortages in key areas. The violence has displaced thousands, forcing them into overcrowded ‘relief’ camps with poor sanitation and limited medical care, heightening the risk of disease outbreaks. Already fragile, the healthcare system is now overwhelmed, exposing systemic failures in crisis response and infrastructure resilience. Women, children, students, and elders have disproportionately faced the impacts of the violence,” the statement said.

The signatories highlighted that ensuring universal health rights is essential to achieve a fair, just and lasting peace in the battered region. In the current situation, essential health services remain severely disrupted in many parts of Manipur, both due to the ongoing crisis and due to the skewed distribution of health infrastructure in the State. While most of the services are concentrated in Imphal, the rest of the districts suffer from a lack of basic infrastructure like hospitals, staff and services in the existing hospitals.

10 demands

The signatories placed the following 10 demands before the president that require both immediate attention as well as systemic action:

1. A Special Task Force headed by an official with powers equivalent to a Cabinet secretary must be immediately constituted, with special funds, to investigate the public health situation at hand in Manipur, within a fixed timeline of 2 months. Based on the recommendations of the Task Force, the government should plan and implement the necessary measures for strengthening public health across Manipur.

2. Convene a committee of unbiased public health experts from the region to discuss how the aforesaid plans can be carried out efficiently, considering the social, political and cultural histories and complexities of the region.

3. Urgent filling up of vacant posts and recruitment of nurses, doctors and other medical staff in all the public health centres and hospitals.

4. The Centre must allocate additional funds, even though Manipur spends somewhat more than some other States on health care. Given how frequently the State has undergone violent conflicts, extra funds and adequate budgetary allocations are crucial.

5. There must be effective inter-sectoral coordination between the home, disaster management, health, food and civil supplies, women and child welfare and social welfare departments to make sure that the rights and entitlements of the most vulnerable citizens and social groups, including tribal, indigenous communities, elders, women, children, persons with disabilities, workers, students, religious minorities, transgender, queer persons etc is taken care of.

6. Ensure advanced preparedness for the onset of monsoon and disease outbreak both in the villages and relief camps.

7. Ensure that there is no discrimination in health services based on gender, religion and ethnicity.

8. Setting up effective and decentralised health infrastructure in as many districts of Manipur as possible, within a fixed time frame. Most immediately, setting up functional community health centres in Lamka, especially in Tuibuang and Sangaikot areas.

9. Strengthen the public health infrastructure, stop privatisation of district hospitals, regulate corporate and private healthcare, ensure availability of quality medicines free of cost and include mental health services at all primary healthcare centres along with universal health care in the public health system.

10. Eventually, the State government must bring a comprehensive law for the Right to Health of all citizens, to address all health-related concerns.

The letter calls for proactive action by the Centre and State governments and a strong political will to implement the aforesaid demands. The signatories also urged the president to visit Manipur at the earliest, interact with and understand the situation of all communities first hand, in the hills, valley and relief camps and intervene effectively to ensure the right to health, right to life, right to safety and dignity of the people of Manipur.