Govinda K.C.
Govinda K.C. is a Nepali orthopedic surgeon and philanthropic activist. He is a professor of orthopedics at Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital, part of the Institute of Medicine, Nepal. He is known for humanitarian work in Nepal and internationally, and for his activism in favor of independent academic functioning of the government medical institutions in Nepal, notably the Institute of Medicine and Patan Academy of Health Sciences. His non-violent protests and fasts have successfully pressurized the government and stakeholders.
Early Life and Schooling
Govinda K.C. initially studied at the Institute of Medicine to be a Health Assistant, which is the equivalent of a Physician Assistant in the US after completing his high school in the prestigious Budhanilkantha School. 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 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.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 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 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 the 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 wrongdoings 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.
Eleventh Hunger Strike
Dr. KC sat on his Eleventh fast unto death from 24 July 2017 with seven point demand of medical education reformation. He has demanded to incorporate the Kedar Bhakta Mathema led committee's recommendation in the forthcoming Medical Education Bill.Fourteenth Hunger Strike
On 8 January 2018, following the decision of the Supreme Court to reinstate Dr. Shashi Sharma as Dean of the Institute of Medicine, Dr. K.C. called a press conference to condemn the move and began his 14th hunger strike. Dr. K.C. accused the court of "selling justice" and began his hunger-strike to demand the resignation of Chief Justice Gopal Parajuli. He alleged the Chief Justice was "a corrupt individual having links with the mafia". Since 2014, Parajuli has ruled in favor of private medical colleges and against the Nepal Medical Council, the regulatory body governing medical education in the country, and the rulings have favored seven for-profit medical colleges in the country.Later that evening, the Supreme Court ordered his arrest for contempt of court. He was arrested by the Kathmandu Metropolitan Police from TU Teaching hospital, where the hunger strike was being staged, and taken to the Singha Durbar Police Circle. Nepal Medical Association demanded instant release of Dr. K.C. and condemned the incident as being gravely sad. NMA stated that Dr. K.C. has brought positive changes in the medical sector through his hunger strike. On 9 January 2018, K.C. was presented before the SC and a hearing was scheduled for 10 January. K.C. remained in the custody till the hearing. In his statement at the court, KC stated that "CJ Parajuli had lobbied and secured a job for his nephew at the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority as the commission’s legal counselor following a SC decision in favour of the former CIAA chief commissioner Lokman Singh Karki."
On 10 January 2018, he was released on general date without bail by the Supreme Court. The Court ordered to enquire the controversy of Chief Justice Gopal Parajuli's citizenship and the case of Dr. Shashi Sharma would be reopened. Dr. K.C.'s lawyer Surendra Bhandari told on K.C.'s behalf that K.C. had accused the Chief Justice Parajuli of his corrupt actions. Similarly, K.C. on his release told:
Fifteenth Hunger Strike
Dr Govinda KC initiated his 15th fast-unto-death, in Jumla on June 30, 2018 to protest against alternations made to the Medical Education Ordinance Replacement Bill, among other issues by the government led by K P Oli.Personal Life
K.C. is unmarried and lived within the hospital quarters until his retirement from IOM. His family includes his mother and two brothers. When asked by Vijay Kumar Pandey in a television interview to list three priorities in his life, he listed service to patients and his students- and no third priority.Now, he has been living with his relative in Kathmandu.