Unbridled corporatisation of health, education opposed

Guntur: Noted economist and Jawaharlal Nehru University professor Jayati Ghosh has expressed concern about the unbridled corporatisation of education and health sectors.A She was delivering the inaugural address at the 26th State annual meet of Vyavasaya Karmika Sangham here on Monday. The alarming levels of corporatisation of these crucial sectors--health and education--led to denial of education and health to poorer sections.

Common man was unable to bear the burden on account of medical services on the one hand and finding it difficult to pursue higher and professional courses on the other hand. Private forces had been dictating terms in both these sectors. If the situation was allowed to continue, it would leave long-term implications on society. There was an urgent need for the people to agitate for pressurising the government to do away with the faulty policy, she said

Prof Jayati called upon the farming community, especially farm labour, to take up struggles and pressurise the government to formulate pro-poor policies. She insisted on implementing land reforms on the lines of those introduced by late Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. The government would not change its policy until and unless the farm labour launch an intensified struggle, she said. Stating that open market policy being pursued by the government had a cascading effect on the economy, Prof Jayati said that rising prices of essential commodities were the side effects of liberal imports. It would not be possible to control price rise unless the government had control over imports, she said.

The economist demanded the government to pay a monthly pension of Rs 2,000 to all senior citizens. Substantiating her argument, she said that the cost incurred on these pensions would be less than three per cent of the tax concessions being offered to capitalists. The professor alerted people on the ill-effects of various policies adopted by the government. Large-scale privatisation had marred job prospects of the unemployed. Employment opportunities in public sector were on the decline, she lamented.

Paturi Ramaiah, leader of the Sangham, Communist Party of India- Marxist (CPM) leaders BV Raghavulu and Tammineni Veerabhadram, Prof Venugopal, former MP from Kerala Vijayaraghavan, MLC KS Laxmana Rao and others were present.