Karnataka Janaarogya Chaluvali demands termination of Health Department’s partnership with ISKCON to provide inpatient meals

Condemning the State Health Department’s partnership with ISKCON to provide inpatient meals in three government hospitals, the Karnataka Janaarogya Chaluvali (KJC), a people’s health movement, has demanded the department to immediately reverse its decision.

“The move is a failure of the government to strengthen its own healthcare systems. Instead of investing in public hospital kitchens and infrastructure, the government is outsourcing an essential service, raising concerns about accountability and sustainability,” said a statement issued here on Thursday, adding that the move will only facilitate “imposition of unscientific Brahminical culinary ideology on the patients for whom this diet is neither healthy nor does it suit their palate.”

Pointing out that government hospitals are secular public spaces funded by all citizens, regardless of religion, the K.J.C statement said handing over a core function like patient nutrition to a religious organisation is a violation of constitutional principles. “Patients’ rights to appropriate medical care and a secular environment of public hospitals must be protected at all costs.”

“We will oppose this move through all democratic means available. A formal memorandum will soon be submitted to the Health Minister,” the statement added.