BHUTAN - - DEVELOPMENT WITH VALUES
KAJAL CHATTERJEE
Tata Medical Center, New Town, Kolkata. At least 100 cancer patients from Bhutan remain admitted here at any point of time throughout the year.
Just because Bhutan "owes" the Tata Medical Center of New Town, Kolkata more than 400 units of blood (in the version of the consul general of Bhutan), none other but the King of Bhutan commands his de-suung (guardian of peace) to take necessary steps!
Launched in 2011 by the King, the
de-suung programme encourages citizens from all walks of life to take up a role in nation building and draws volunteers called de-suups.
So 41 of such volunteers had arrived in Kolkata to donate blood at the hospital. A total of 334 have already registered to come and donate with final target being 800-900!
What an impeccable lesson has Bhutan imparted to the world at large!
Bhutan has not taken any unfair advantage regarding the affair of blood donation in the hospital. After all the staff are voluntarily coming forward to come in aid of the Bhutanese cancer patients in urgent need of blood as it is not possible for them to arrange donor in urgent basis in an alien country! So Bhutan could have attempted to avoid the issue or passed the ball to the court of the concerned Bhutanese patients!
But Bhutan doesn't think in an indifferent escapist light as it treats every citizen as members of own family - - not through rhetoric, rather through sheer deed in practical terms.
So as to ensure welfare to its citizens, finding themselves amidst crisis in foreign territory; for the sake of self-respect of the country ; to express indebtedness to the Indian staff of the Hospital voluntarily donating blood and also to provide a bit of relief to them so that they are not required to repeatedly donate it for the Bhutanese patients in crisis - - - the consul general of the country to the King and government of Bhutan and the selfless volunteers (de-supps) have made a collective effort for such a noble life-saving cause!
Of course it deserves special mention that the Bhutan government already covers the entire treatment cost of the Bhutanese citizens lodged in the hospital!
Economically Bhutan might not be a prosperous country; but in terms of morality humanity sense of indebtedness and responsibility towards fellow citizens ; Bhutan simply is unparalleled.
What a contrast to those "mighty" countries (boasting of marching towards one of the largest economies of the world), millions of whose citizens get compelled to escape to the civil war scarred nations of West Asia and North/Central Africa to escape wretchedness back home and often face unfathomable exploitation and torture there along with meeting natural or accidental death! Do the respective home countries come forward in rescuing them from the clutches of their exploiters or ensure adequate protection for them in those alien environment! If any of them pass away individually (ie if not form part of mass victim due to any accident), his/her family get left at their own miseries and have to fend for themselves how to return the body of the deceased!
Bhutan has delivered a stern message to many so-called "modern" countries that not the glitter of gigantic statues shrines buildings or luxury trains, not even exploration of planets and satellites of the solar system; rather providing basic amenities to the common citizens and providing relief to them in times of stress and vulnerability form the first duty of any welfare democratic State.
No wonder why far from measuring the country's prosperity through statistical jugglery of Gross Domestic Product, Bhutan measures it through the unique concept of Gross National Happiness which the fourth King Jigme Singye Wangchuk had defined in three simple words --- "DEVELOPMENT WITH VALUES".
If survival of humanity and world civilization is indeed the call of the hour, all States should treat Bhutan as its role model by flying aloft the underlying message of GNH --- "DEVELOPMENT WITH VALUES".