These are serious matters, which need statesmanship and vision, not gimmickry or chest thumping and cheap politics. There is need for serious introspection as to the nature of spending we have to do. Concerned with this, organisations of doctors of South Asia affiliated to International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) recently came out with a clear cut opinion that the countries of South Asia specially should immediately drastically bring down the expenditure on the arms race, completely shun the nuclear weapons, declare the region as nuclear weapons free zone and divert money from arms race towards health. They declared that it is proven beyond doubt that medical science has no remedy to offer in the event of nuclear fallout. It has been estimated through scientific studies that even a limited nuclear exchange with 100 Hiroshima size nuclear weapons between India and Pakistan will put over two billion people at the risk of starvation and death globally.

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) in a recent study has come out with data on health capacity in Delhi and Islamabad. Predicted capacity after nuclear attack in Islamabad is 730 doctors and 373 nurses and midwives. In such situation 2,64,870 people are likely to be injured. That means every doctor in Islamabad would be responsible of treating 363 people simultaneously. Likewise with the health capacity available in Delhi in the eventuality of a nuclear attack every doctor would be responsible for treating 102 people simultaneously.

Going by the history of nuclear catastrophe in Hiroshima on 6th August 1945 as reported by Dr Marcel Junod from Red Cross, very few health workers were willing to go to the radiation affected areas. We have developed PPEs for protection of the health workers from the SARS COV-2 but it would be impossible to develop such equipment for protection from the nuclear radiations.

The crisis is grave and real as both India and Pakistan have estimated number of 150 nuclear weapons each. They are the only two nuclear weapons possessing countries which have been on hot and cold wars since long. Even the armies of the two countries have faced each other in high alert. There is no indication of thaw in the tension between them in near future. It is high time the nuclear weapons possessing countries realize gravity of the situation. Doctors and other peace loving sections of the society have to come forward to impress upon the governments of India and Pakistan to reach agreement for the region to be nuclear weapons free zone. The Treaty Prohibiting Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) passed by the UNO, which delegitimizes the nuclear weapons is an opportunity. Only Bangladesh has ratified the treaty while Nepal has signed but not ratified it. The non nuclear weapons possessing countries of the region can play significant role in calling upon both India and Pakistan to become nuclear free. (IPA Service)