25 Years On, Uttarakhand Still Bleeds in Silence: The Mountains Cry for Doctors, Not Promises
Twenty-five years after Uttarakhand carved its identity from the plains, its hills still echo with a painful question — where are the hospitals, where are the doctors?
For Saraswati Kirola from Chaukhutia in Almora district, that question became heartbreakingly personal in 2017.
Her husband began suffering from excruciating head pain, but at the local community health centre, there were no specialists, no diagnostic machines, not even basic facilities. The doctors could only watch helplessly.
Desperate, she travelled 135 kilometres to Haldwani, spending ₹1.5 lakh at a private hospital — a fortune for a mountain family — only to be told nothing conclusive.
When they finally reached Delhi, it was too late; surgery was needed for complications from an old injury.
“What angers me,” Kirola says, “is that even after 25 years of statehood, we still don’t have proper healthcare in the hills. We have to travel hundreds of kilometres to save a life.”
Now, she is among hundreds of villagers marching nearly 300 kilometres to Dehradun, demanding something as basic as functioning hospitals.
The March for Life
On October 2, the dusty courtyard of the Chaukhutia Community Health Centre became the heart of a growing movement.
Led by Bhuwan Kathayat, a former Army man, villagers raised slogans that pierced the mountain silence: Swasthya sewayen bahal karo, doctor do, aspatal bachao!”
(“Revive health services, send doctors, save our hospitals!”)
Kathayat went on hunger strike, collapsing days later — and, in a cruel twist of irony, had to be taken to Haldwani, the same distant hospital that patients from Chaukhutia depend on.
Even that didn’t stop him. After a week of treatment, he rejoined the protest, determined to fight for what he calls “the right to live with dignity.”
Promises on Paper, Pain on the Ground
After days of outrage, the Uttarakhand government announced on October 16 that the Chaukhutia CHC would be upgraded to a Sub-District Hospital (SDH) — from 30 beds to 50, with a digital X-ray and more staff. But protesters say they’ve heard this before.
“We don’t need new walls,” says Kathayat. “We need doctors inside the ones that already stand empty.”
Currently, the centre has just four MBBS doctors — none of them specialists. The state authorises a paediatrician, gynaecologist, and physician, but none are posted.
“Patients die on the way to Haldwani or Delhi. This is not healthcare — this is neglect,” he says.
The problem is not isolated. In July, a one-year-old boy suffering from dehydration was shuttled through four hospitals — from Bageshwar to Almora to Haldwani — before dying in an ICU.
His death became a symbol of what many call Uttarakhand’s healthcare collapse.
A State’s Unkept Promise
Kathayat’s march from Chaukhutia has now covered dozens of kilometres, swelling with villagers from across Kumaon and Garhwal. His demand is simple — doctors first, buildings later.
Along the way, stories pour in: of women walking miles for vaccines, of elders dying because no ambulance could reach their village in time, of parents forced to sell land to pay for treatment in Delhi or Lucknow.
Saraswati Kirola, now a zila panchayat member, sums up the tragedy: We live in a land of apples, rivers, and gods — but not of doctors.”
Political Echoes, Human Silence
Even the opposition has taken note. Congress state president Karan Mahara called it “a cruel irony” that the state government spends ₹1,001 crore on advertisements, while villagers die for lack of medicine. “Twenty-five years after statehood, the mountains still weep,” he said.
As Kathayat’s march inches toward Dehradun, it carries not just slogans but a haunting truth — that in the shadow of the Himalayas, beauty hides a brutal absence.
Uttarakhand was born out of the dream of development, yet today, its people still beg for basics — a doctor, a road, an ambulance, a chance to live.
And so, the question lingers on the wind that sweeps through these valleys:
How many more must walk to Dehradun before the hills are healed?
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