In a Soundless and Heartless World
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: January 31, 2013 -

While numerous studies have shown rising incidences of hearing loss among the people due to various factors ranging from simple ear infection to hereditary and from exposure to noise to the effect of certain drugs, etc, and various countries around the world have woken up to the challenges of productivity, both physical and economic, that are likely to be faced with more and more people, especially the young, suffering from hearing loss, it is indeed sad to know that implementation of the cent-percent Centrally funded National Programme for Prevention and Control of Deafness (NPPCD) has become a complete disaster in Manipur with the funds released by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare remaining traceless.

Taking into account of the fact that most people with hearing loss endure the problem silently even though it may not be too serious an ailment to treat, the Ministry launched the National Programme for Prevention and Control of Deafness (NPPCD) in 2007-08 as a pilot project in 25 districts singled out from 10 States and 1 Union Territory to tackle high incidence of deafness in the country.

The project has been subsequently expanded to other parts of the country with the long term objective of preventing and control major causes of hearing impairment and deafness along with spreading its interactive training programmes from the state level to the village level to generate mass awareness and knowledge about ear diseases and basic measures to prevent and manage common conditions and help people to use hearing aids effectively.

In a way, people with hearing problem in Manipur consider themselves to be lucky when the four districts of the State namely, Imphal West, Ukhrul, Churachandpur and Senapati districts were included in the first phase of the project itself.

But after four fiscal years down the line, implementation of the programme has hit the rock bottom with the funds released by the Ministry remaining unaccounted simply because the State Government has not appointed a Nodal officer to monitor implementation of the programme.

Initially, the project was implemented in the State under an NGO by the name of Spastic Society, Manipur with fair amount of success.

However, it has become a different story after inclusion of the programme under National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) and handing over the responsibility of implementing the programme to the State Health Society.

As far as we remember, in response to an RTI application seeking information on the funds released by the Ministry for NPPCD in Manipur from 2008-09 to 2012-13 among others, the State Health Society only disclosed that a sum of Rs 60,57,950 had been sanctioned for the year 2007-08 for procuring materials for PHCs, district hospitals, CHCs and for conducting capacity building for PHCs and ear screening camps, for distributing hearing aids, for salaries of staff on contract-basis, and for manpower trainings and nothing more about the subsequent funding provided.

So, where have all the sanctioned funds gone? This is a serious issue that should not be brushed aside.

If not for the supposed beneficiaries of the programme, the missing fund when recovered could very well be utilized purposefully on treatment of the Government, which also seems to suffer from congenital hearing loss to the cry of justice by the people.

What do you say?