Doctors across South Asia demand investment on health instead of arms  

Ludhiana:

In a Webinar on `Lessons from pandemic build hospitals not bombs’, the doctors from IPPNW affiliates from South Asian countries viz Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal Sri Lanka and India demanded from their governments particularly India and Pakistan to desist spending on arms, instead invest on building hospitals. The pandemic has taught us several lessons mainly that we need to increase spending on health. Pakistan and India are in particular engaged in perpetual armed conflicts for several decades. There have been continuously increasing spending on arms which is adversely affecting the development of the two countries. So much so that India is the largest importer of arms in the world. India and Pakistan have had several hot and cold conflicts which could at any time pose the danger of nuclear exchange which would kill people not only in these two countries but affect over two billion people globally and put them on the risk of starvation. The COVID crisis has totally taken us unprepared which is leading to large number of deaths due to lack of oxygen and other needs. Dr Arun Mitra Co President IPPNW said that it was decided to communicate with the respective governments on these issues about the concerns on the health of the people. 

Those who participated include Dr Tipu Sultan – Pakistan, Dr Kamrul H Khan, Dr Salek, Dr Moshiur Rahman – Bangladesh, Dr Arun Dixit, Dr Sharad Onta, Sudarshan  Acharya - Nepal, Dr S S Soodan, Dr Arun Mitra, Dr Olga Mirinova – Russia, Chuk Johnson – Programme Director IPPNW. Achin Vanaik, a political scientist was the main speaker. He stressed on the urgency of South Asia being declared as nuclear free zone.  

The webinar was organized by Indian Doctors for Peace and Development.