- Gaurav Sachdeva

 As I describe my visit to the village of Dara, Rajasthan, under the occupational hazards case study organised by A.I.I.M.S, the gruesome reality and the plight of villagers is brought alive. 
 Rocky terrain, dusty air, the deafening sound of mammoth stone cutting machines and the sober faces of the labourers. They worked on daily wages- the work and money bringing them a step closer to a grueling death day by day. Coughing and wiping away their perspiration many of them don't even know they are suffering from Tuberculosis and Silicosis! Its good actually because those are aware are no better or rather they are in a worse state than their counterparts. 'WHY' is one question that brings to the forefront their dilapidated conditions. The doctors available have probably forgotten their sanctum oath by being hypocrites in giving treatment. They intentionally do not give the right combination of drugs so that the patients develop undesired immunity enabling the doctor to switch over to prolonged, expensive anti-biotic treatments. Poor villagers are sapped of all their resources and reserves to the extent that some of them have moved over into tents for having lost their pawned houses. From head to foot, their lives are at the mercy of the village financer. 
 Fearing a similar apathy, many switch over to the local quacks. The scientifically baseless treatment that these offer either leaves them workless or worthless. 
 The repercussion, their lives have become tales of sorrow, disease and suffering! 
 So let us stop for a minute and think. Have we really moved into the new millennium and is this what we had installed for these fellow citizens? 
 Let these lines motivate and prompt us to think and come out with a solution: