The helpless people of a democracy
Orong High School has been the case of constant discussion and debate in the country ever since two students died and dozens hospitalised few weeks back.
Laboratory tests for food and health tests of the students have not concluded confirming that the cause of death was vitamin deficiency. The nutrition deficiency impacts must have started when the school outsourced private hotel to supply necessary food items for students since a year.
The business does not go well unless enough profit is made- the Bhutanese sentiments. Additionally, there are no mechanism or process for frequent quality check of the food supplied to the students.
But interestingly, this has some connection with Bhutanese refugees. Most of the refugees resettled in the US or Australia have been detected to have vitamin deficiency. In this sense, the students and future leader of the country, were treated as refugees within their land in terms of food quality.
The supplier might have constrains in supplying quality food with limited budget. The government has never reviewed the budget for student feed since 2002. The prices in market skyrocketed since then but budget remain constant at Nu 700 per student per month.
Neither issue of review the budget had been on government agenda for last decade nor the schools asked government to review it. A suggestion by WFP last year to increase the budget for school feeding was flatly ignored by the government.
In a recent remark, while addressing the annual educational conference in Gelephu (Gaylegphug) last week, minister Thakur Singh Powdyal said the incident is comparable to involuntary man slaughter.
However, the government has failed to take strong action against the school administration and outsourced agent. The school is running as usual and the food-supplying agent still running its normal business. The students and the parents are left powerless. A delegation from the village of those of parents to the government demanding action against school administration and the food supplying agent might be termed as act of treason or misuse of rights.
There has been not a single organisation to question the government on why it is silent except media. Not a single lawyer in the country came up bold enough to file a case at the court demanding action. Isn’t there law to prosecute persons involved in ‘involuntary manslaughter?’
This is where Bhutan is urgently in need of activists – be the voice of voiceless people. The democratisation and empowering people to use their democratic rights remain in theory and in paper, so far in Bhutan.