Govinda K.C.

Early life and schooling

Govinda K.C. initially studied at the Institute of Medicine to be a Health Assistant (H.A.), which is the equivalent of a Physician Assistant in the USA. He had been unaware that this was a step in potentially becoming a doctor but on completing his H.A. he won a Ministry of Education scholarship to study for a M.B.B.S. in Bangladesh at Rajshahi Medical College. After graduation, he returned to Nepal and served in Bir Hospital. He then received further study (M.S.) in Bangladesh at Dhaka University to become an orthopedic surgeon. Although he wanted to serve in a tertiary hospital and there was a shortage of orthopedists in Kathmandu, plans were made to transfer him to a rural hospital where there would be no facilities to practice orthopedics. He resigned from Bir Hospital and joined the Institute of Medicine as a volunteer in 1994.

Institute of Medicine

Beginning as a volunteer, he has eventually become a professor specializing in child orthopedics. He spends all of his time in the government hospital and, except for a year to help a friend, has never had private practice. He serves the poor people who throng his clinics, getting as many as possible to the free academic beds which are allocated to each Professor and Unit Chief.

Humanitarian works

K.C. has preferred to use his salary to provide services in remote areas in Nepal, and has also traveled internationally in response to natural calamities. He has not taken funds from any non-governmental organization (NGO) or international NGO to provide these services. Apart from the earthquake in Nepal, he has financed his own way on these Nepalese and international humanitarian services.

Nepal

TUTH offers K.C. a few weeks of vacation every year. He goes to the most rural clinics of Nepal, far from public transportation, often traveling there on foot. He trains health workers in rural Nepal to identify orthopedic emergencies, to provide emergency treatment and if necessary provide timely referrals. He organizes health camps in remote places. He gives medications to these people and makes necessary arrangements to give free medical treatment when they come for further treatment in Kathmandu. He has faced allegations of being a spy or an insurgent when he worked during the Maoists' insurgency. The rural districts of Nepal had an outbreak of cholera some years ago. Many doctors refused to go there, even if paid. K.C. carried medicine on his back to provide humanitarian aid.

International

K.C. has traveled extensively to assist victims of natural disasters. In 2001, he spent three weeks in the Bhuj region in Gujarat, India after the earthquake. In 2005, he served in Northwest Pakistan for around 20 days after a disastrous earthquake. After a cyclone in Myanmar in 2008, the government of Myanmar prevented foreign aid agencies from entering the country, but admitted him for two weeks. In 2010, he went to Haiti in the wake of the disastrous earthquake and served for three weeks. In 2011, he served flood victims in Pakistan for two weeks. In 2013, he went to the Philippines to treat people affected by the tsunami.

Medical sector activist

KC has been a prominent campaigner for medical sector reform in response to public allegations of both corruption and of undue political pressure to give medical college affiliation to facilities with inadequate infrastructures. His ongoing advocacy over several years has included several lengthy personal hunger strikes, which have received extensive media coverage, and successfully pressurized the authorities to make some changes.

In January 2014, K.C. launched another hunger strike, campaigning against the political appointment of a new dean of IoM, which did not reflect seniority, as well as several other grievances. Supporting this cause, the medical association of Nepal shut down hospitals, except the emergency services, across the country. The Nepal Medical Association called for mass resignation of doctors across the country and almost a hundred doctors and professors resigned. The doctors announced free medical camps at public places. These collective actions appear to have been successful, so K.C. broke his fast.

Fifth and sixth fast-unto-death coming to eighth fast

K.C. announced a fifth hunger strike after the Nepalese government retracted from its agreement with him and his movement. He and the government of Nepal came to an agreement that the opening of new medical colleges would be based on the report to be presented by a team of specialists led by Kedar Bhakta Mathema. Chitralekha Yadav, minister for Education, was accused of having made key amendments to the law to make way for the new Devdaha and Birat Medical colleges to be granted affiliation. Law-makers led by CPN UML leader Rajendra Pandey staged protests in the Constituent Assembly demanding the affiliation to be granted before the report would be presented to the government. They also threatened with the signatures of 146 lawmakers, mostly from the CPN UML, that they would topple the government if affiliation was not granted. These lawmakers had cited that their investment would go in vain if they were not allowed to run a medical college. Several independent observations cited that none of the medical colleges had enough manpower. Most of them did not have infrastructures and did not have adequate patient flow.

When his demands were not met, the professor protested peacefully with a hunger strike. The movement got widespread support from social sector activists, medical professionals and students, artists including Nepathya and "Maha". However, there was a latency in exhibiting support from Nepal Medical Council and Nepal Medical Association. The prime minister, Koirala, was confronted with K.C.'s degrading health. To this the PM replied, "So what?" This further incensed the movement.

The government of Nepal responded with a committee composed of the ministers for education Chitralekha Yadav, for health Khagaraj Adhikrai and the Chief Secretary Lilamani Paudel. The professor refused to hold talks with the ministers as there were concerns of creating loopholes and forcing a way out of the existing rules to grant new medical colleges affiliation. Meanwhile, the medical fraternity, various leaders and celebrities expressed support for the movement. Nepal Medical Association urged all medical services to be halted except for the emergency services. K.C. maintained that he was against ithe strike.

Meanwhile, the professor's health deteriorated further. When the government of Nepal succumbed to mounting pressure and agreed on most of the agenda, he broke his fast, and the Nepal Medical Association and other supporters of the movement retracted the proposed protest measures. He sat on sixth fast unto death from 24 August 2015 to 6 September again as the government heavily influenced by unscrupulous politicians and merchants with wrong intention tried with all means to let the medical colleges go unregulated by undermining the Mathema report. The fast again ended with 11 commitments from the government.He sat on eighth fast against wrong doings of CIAA and for reform of medical education since 10 July 2016 which continues till date as government and legislators have failed to act in public intetest.

Personal life

K.C. is unmarried and lives within the hospital quarters. He has his mother, two brothers and a laptop. When asked by Vijaykumar in a television interview to list three priorities in his life, he listed service to patients and his students- and no third priority.