New Ordinance by Modi Govt to Protect Health Workers: Welcome Act But Caution Also Needs to be Applied to Prevent Misuse

Modi Govt has approved an Ordinance to make acts of violence against doctors and other medical staff a cognizable and non-bailable offence, with punishment up to 7 years in jail, as the government sought to assuage fears of the health workers amid increasing reports of attacks on them. The attackers will also have to pay double the cost of the property they damage. [News]

Briefing media after the decision was taken in a meeting, information and broadcasting minister Prakash Javadekar said the Cabinet has approved the Ordinance to amend the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897.

This is a good decision in itself since there has been many incidents of attacks on medical staff majorly by Muslim community members in their dominated areas. 

But at the same time, this is a stringent act and history has shown that any harsh law which is made by government soon starts getting misused. Even this act is not only for "doctors" who are well qualified people and hence expected to behave properly, but also for "health workers" who are not educated and sometimes come from doubtful background. In such cases they may use this law to settle old scores by labeling charges against their enemies or in order to harass anyone threatening to file a case under this harsh law. It can also lead to extortion like situations. 

The only safeguard I can see is that this ordinance has been passed as part of the Epidemic Diseases Act and after the current Chinese Virus (NCov19) crisis is passed, it should practically stop being in affect. But since a country like ours faces several disease outbreaks, it should be seen with caution that such extreme laws are not used every time. 

At the same time, it will remain up to the state Police department to impose this law or not. It can be argued that the Police were already empowered to arrest the culprits under existing laws and to prevent attack on health workers using standard means without this act. 

But Police is under control of the state governments and many states do not have BJP in power and hence do not implement Modi government's ideas in full spirits and hence this can be seen as an attempt by Modi government to further "centralize" powers with Center; which is not a good thing for our democracy. 

If this ordinance and the act is used only in exceptional cases, it can help the cause immensely. And hence we should welcome it. But since every stringent law is misused by many, the Police should see to it that this stringent law is not misused against innocent individuals.