Advertising medical cures and public health

Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss has said it for the third time in a year and half that he proposes to amend the Drugs and Magic Remedies Act, 1954 with the aim of banning advertisements about treatment processes.

It is a matter of wonder why he is unable to implement what he said in 2005, though a full year has passed. He said it again in 2006, and now he has said it again in 2007. What is so pressing about advertisements, that is not about a host of other ills that are sapping the health of the average Indian?

We are living with air pollution beyond imagination (India has 5 of the world's most polluted cities, the World Bank says, and New Delhi is still the most polluted in the WHOLE WORLD). Why is Dr. Ramadoss happy to live in Delhi with such polluted air, but feels so strongly about advertisements, which are of course completely unethical and I hold no brief for the greedy corporate dispensers of health.

Water is another sadly neglected area which is yet to catch the concerned gaze of our Union and State Governments and Dr. Ramadoss. Only people who can buy bottled water are safe in India. Why not do something about municipal water supplies, so that people can drink safe water. After all, that is a much more fundamental driver of public health than getting a few tertiary hospitals to stop advertising? You can actually stop sending people to hospitals looking for cures!

Are these things not important because our political worthies see no 'returns' from such national scale actions?