Protecting healthcare professionals against violence: Parliament nod to Epidemic Diseases Amendment Bill
The Ordinance amends the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897 in order to provide protection to health care service personnel, their living premises as well as their workplaces against any violence during the course of a pandemic.
New Delhi - A Bill aimed at protecting healthcare professionals against violence during health crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic, got the nod of Parliament with the Lok Sabha passing the draft legislation on Monday.
The Epidemic Diseases (Amendment) Bill, 2020, was passed by the Rajya Sabha on Saturday.
The proposed legislation replaces Epidemic Diseases (Amendment) Ordinance 2020, promulgated on April 22.
Replying to the debate on the bill, Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan said if the history of Corona is written, corona warriors will also be remembered.
He saluted the mothers whose children are fighting the virus as frontline warriors.
Defending the ordinance promulgation, he said this was very urgent at the time. Acts of violence against doctors and health workers have reduced since the Ordinance was promulgated, he pointed out.
He said during the past nine months, the Centre, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, have worked hard and is fighting against the pandemic for 135 crore people of the country.
'We are working for Atmanirbhar Swasth Bharat,' he said.
The Ordinance amends the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897 in order to provide protection to health care service personnel, their living premises as well as their workplaces against any violence during the course of a pandemic.
The draft law amends the Act to include protections for healthcare personnel combating epidemic diseases and expands the powers of the central government to prevent the spread of such diseases.
The service personnel who will be protected under the new legislation include 'public and clinical healthcare service providers such as doctors, nurses, paramedical workers and community health workers; any other persons empowered under the act to take measures to prevent the outbreak of the disease or spread thereof; and any persons declared as such by the state government, by notification in the official gazette.'
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