The Hindu 

Tuesday, Sep 02, 2003  

France's heat wave

By Vaiju Naravane

How is it possible that in a country that boasts of one of the most advanced
healthcare systems in the world, over 10,000 people are allowed to die in a
matter of days?

HUNDREDS OF bodies are lying unclaimed in morgues across France, especially
in Paris. The dead are all victims of the recent heat wave that killed over
11,000 people. They lie there more than a fortnight after they died because
their relatives are unwilling to interrupt their holidays in order to give
granny, father, mother or aunt a decent burial. Unless claimed and buried by
their relatives, these bodies will end up in a common grave with the state
paying for their disposal.

During a two-week heat wave from end July to mid-August, people died like
flies. Most were old, weak and vulnerable. Many of them passed away in
understaffed retirement homes where they had been dumped by families either
incapable or unwilling to look after them. Hundreds died on stretcher
trolleys in hospital corridors, quietly expiring before emergency staff
could reach their side.

All that most of them needed was an intravenous drip of glucose and saline
combined with a lowering of body temperature. With the mercury topping 40
degrees Celsius for several days in a row, buildings constructed to keep the
heat in and the cold out became furnaces. A fan or an air conditioner could
not be had for love or money. Hospitals were unable to cope with the influx
of ailing people. The result was an unprecedented human and social tragedy.
But these bald facts do not adequately explain France's failure to provide
succour on time. In India too we suffer extreme temperatures and hundreds
die each year of the heat. Forty-five degrees Celsius in Uttar Pradesh,
Bihar, Delhi, Andhra Pradesh and many parts of Rajasthan is not unusual. And
yet for a population of over a billion, even making allowances for
under-reporting and poor statistics, the toll even during the hottest of
summers is rarely, if ever, that high.

How is it possible that in a country that boasts of one of the most advanced
and comprehensive healthcare systems in the world, over 10,000 people are
allowed to die in a matter of days?

Reduced legal working hours have given the French the type of leisure others
can only dream of. The entire country shuts down, especially in August when
driving in Paris is like going through a ghost town. After July's annual
clearance sales the economy partially shuts down. Business is placed on hold
as the French head out to holiday centres for fun and sun, sea and sand.
With schools and universities shutting down until the "rentrée" or return to
class in September, cities empty out, becoming shells of their former
selves.

When the heat wave struck most families were on holiday. Many of their
elderly relatives had been left behind in old age homes. There were not
enough policemen or firemen, ambulance drivers, retirement home attendants,
nurses or doctors to respond to the emergency as more and more elderly began
falling ill as a result of the heat. Ozone pollution in the cities reached
dangerous proportions. Many of those who died had a body temperature of over
42 degrees.

For the past 50 years Europe has seen a demographic decline. France is
having to reform its pension system because the pension base — made up of
the nation's active population that contributes to the funds that pay out
monies — is getting narrower each year, with a corresponding expansion at
the receiving end of the scale.

And that gap is widening. A lot more people are retiring than are youngsters
joining the job market. And thanks to modern medicine, those who retire live
very long indeed — the average life span for a French woman is 87 years
while a man is expected to live up to 85. Retirement begins at 63. For the
next 25 years, the working generations of today will have to pay not only
for their own retirement but also for those who have already retired. One of
the solutions is to extend the age of retirement so that people have longer
working lives.

But there are other reasons of a social and psychological nature. The
nuclear family is exploding. Parents often tell children to leave the family
home once they have reached 18 years of age when the parents' legal
responsibility for their offspring comes to an end. When the parents grow
old the children pay them back in the same currency.

I know of a woman who refused to claim her grandmother's body. "Let her rot.
She was selfish, mean and cruel. She showed me no love, no warmth, no
generosity. Why should I be expected to do something now she is dead?" The
Prime Minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, chided his compatriots for showing a
lack of solidarity towards the elderly. However, the President, Jacques
Chirac, did not bother to cut short his vacation to return to hot and stuffy
Paris as a mark of solidarity to his sweltering countrymen.

In a society obsessed by youth, beauty, success and power, ravaged by
consumerism and greed, those who have become old, undesirable, weak or
vulnerable are ruthlessly marginalised.

In a belated gesture, the French are planning a special fund for the elderly
by cancelling a national holiday. The move has been challenged by people
reluctant to give up any benefits. In the meantime the bodies are piling up.

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