New Delhi: “Society survives by its institutions”, former Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud said on Sunday, warning against the growing erosion of institutional trust in modern democracy.
He was speaking at the 55th Foundation Day and degree distribution ceremony of the University College of Medical Sciences (UCMS) at Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi.
On his address, the former CJI urged the graduating doctors to reject workplace exploitation and dedicate themselves to the unglamorous, foundational work of healthcare.
The UCMS is a medical institution affiliated with Delhi University that functions alongside the Delhi government-run Guru Teg Bahadur (GTB) Hospital.
“I think it is critical in today’s times; institutions matter. We are today living in an age where everybody wants to bring down every institution in a democracy. Remember, a society survives by its institutions,” Chandrachud said, highlighting the role public institutions play in shaping excellence.
“You have attained this level of excellence because of the institution of the UCMS, of Delhi University, of its traditions. You have attained this eminence because of what you have learned by way of experience in the institutional processes of GTB Hospital. Institutions make all the critical difference,” he said.
The former CJI drew a parallel between human anatomy and institutional building, saying that the most crucial elements of any organisation often remain unseen and unthanked.
“A healed organ inside a body, and a foundation (of an institution), has something in common: nobody sees them. A foundation is the part of a building no one photographs, and no one admires. The internal organ is only captured by scans… It lies buried and unthanked, and yet everyone stands on the foundation,” he said, as reported by The Indian Express.
While reminding the graduates of their responsibility to carry forward this legacy, he added: “This institution was built that way. It was built in the wards of GTB Hospital, in emergency rooms… and through hundreds of thousands of patients who came here and come here… every doctor who walked these corridors left a footprint without knowing they were building anything. Now it is your turn, and you should know from the start that the most important work of your lives will be the work no one sees. You will also find that the people you stay with will not always be people you would choose as your own, but yet, you have to work with them.”
Acknowledging systemic exploitation faced by medical professionals in their early careers, the former CJI encouraged the younger generation to reject it as an acceptable norm.
“Some of it will feel unfair, and sometimes it will be unfair. I also, as a young lawyer, had to grow (up) on a prolonged period of exploitation. Unfortunately, exploitation is something which all of us, as young professionals, suffer at some point in time or the other,” he said.
“But you, so many of you as part of Gen Z, must stand up; that exploitation is not an acceptable dictionary of the language in a modern hospital. But understand what is happening to you. You are being remodelled. The very lines along which you struggle are the lines along which you will become strong,” Chandrachud added.
Praising the medical profession for transcending polarisations, the former CJI said: “Medicine at its finest is the one place where all our divisions are left outside the door.”
“This counts for something because in a world governed by social media, human beings are constantly being shaped and torn apart by ideology, by preferences, by tastes, and by algorithms, which track your movements. None of that, which divides our society and the world today, counts in medicine,” he added.