The Woman Who Ran AIIMS: Breaking Systems, Breaking Silence
Welcome back to Season 4 of Truth Shots with Kapil – the season where we’ve promised to rip off the band-aids, burn the PR handbooks, and tell stories that make people squirm.
If Episode 6 was a brutal takedown of corporate lies with PepsiCo’s CFO Kaushik Mitra, Episode 7 takes us into the beating (and often broken) heart of India’s healthcare system. And who better to talk about it than Dr. Sneh Bhargava – the First Woman Director of AIIMS, New Delhi.
Yes, the same AIIMS that politicians love to name-drop. The same AIIMS that ordinary Indians whisper about like it’s Hogwarts for healthcare. And the same AIIMS that Dr. Bhargava had to run while also battling biases and navigating politics in an India that barely tolerated women in positions of authority.
AIIMS vs the World: Gender Bias Isn’t Equal Everywhere
One of the first truth bombs Dr. Sneh Bhargava AIIMS dropped was this: inside AIIMS, she didn’t face gender bias the way she did outside. Think about that. An institution in the 1980s was more progressive than the so-called “modern” society outside its walls.
Inside AIIMS, competence mattered. Outside AIIMS, patriarchy mattered. And while she never framed herself as a “woman leader,” the fact that she was the First Woman Director of AIIMS made people uncomfortable.
What does it say about us as a country that our premier medical institution treated her better than our so-called modern professional spaces?
Running AIIMS: Not Just a Hospital, But an Idea
Most people think AIIMS is just a hospital. Wrong. AIIMS is an ecosystem, a training ground, a crucible for medical research, and, yes, a political battlefield.
When the First Woman Director of AIIMS took charge, it wasn’t just about running wards and clinics. It was about making AIIMS a real medical college — a place where medicine wasn’t just practiced but reimagined.
She didn’t just sit in an office chair signing files. She confronted massive AIIMS leadership challenges, fought resistance, and left an imprint so deep that decades later, AIIMS still carries her fingerprints.
Healthcare Budgets: The COVID Lesson
Fast forward to COVID-19, and India got a rude awakening: doctors were expected to deliver miracles with shoestring budgets. Government after government starved healthcare of funds.
And yet — doctors delivered. They showed up. They worked. They died.
As Dr. Bhargava pointed out, it took a global pandemic for policymakers to realize that healthcare budgets weren’t charity — they were survival. Too bad it takes tragedy for governments to learn basic math.
The Broken Healthcare Machine
Let’s talk about three big cracks in our Indian healthcare system issues:
- Accessibility: Millions can’t even reach proper healthcare facilities.
- Affordability: Even when they do, treatment bankrupts families.
- Accountability: Systems collapse because no one feels responsible enough to fix them.
Dr. Bhargava’s personal story nailed this point. She once got admitted herself and discovered that a consultant couldn’t come to see her because he was stuck in OPD till night. Not because he was lazy, but because of patient overload. Too many patients, too few doctors. And yet, we keep underfunding the very system that holds us together.
US vs India: Healthcare Is Expensive, But Not Always Better
We also talked about the US model — often hailed as “advanced.” Sure, it’s technologically superior. But it’s also unaffordable. Healthcare there is as much a business as it is a service.
India, despite its chaos, still retains some soul in its system. But soul without structure won’t save us. We need both — efficiency and empathy.
Federalism and Healthcare: Why Structure Matters
Here’s another tough pill: India’s federal system gave the Centre the taxation power, while states were left scrambling for resources. That imbalance shows up in healthcare too.
Some states have booming per capita incomes and demand better healthcare infrastructure. Others are drowning. This gap is turning into a chasm. And if we don’t fix it, we’ll end up with healthcare apartheid inside our own borders.
The Forgotten Woman Who Built AIIMS
One of the most fascinating nuggets in our conversation was about the woman who actually built AIIMS. Yes, history conveniently forgot her name. Yes, patriarchy buried her story.
But Dr. Bhargava reminded us — AIIMS didn’t just spring out of the ground. It was envisioned, designed, and built through grit and vision. And behind that vision was a woman history refuses to celebrate.
It’s ironic, isn’t it? The institution that became the face of Indian healthcare owes its existence to women who remain footnotes.
The Real Diagnosis
If you strip down this conversation, here’s the diagnosis: India’s healthcare is brilliant in spirit, broken in structure.
We have talent. We have resilience. We have doctors who will work through hell with limited resources. But we don’t have systems that support them.
Dr. Sneh Bhargava AIIMS isn’t just a former Director. She’s proof that leadership is possible even in a system that resists change. She’s proof that women in medical leadership India can rise to the highest levels — decades before “diversity” became a corporate buzzword.
And she’s a reminder that truth, even when inconvenient, is the only medicine that works.
Final Truth Shot
Episode 7 isn’t nostalgia. It’s not history. It’s a warning.
If we don’t fix the way we fund, structure, and humanize healthcare, no amount of “AIIMS pride” will save us.
So here’s the takeaway: stop worshipping institutions from afar. Start fixing the system from within. And for God’s sake, let’s not wait for another pandemic to teach us what we already know.
Watch the full episode of Truth Shots with Kapil Gupta – Season 4 ft. Dr. Sneh Bhargava, live now on my YouTube channel @kgismofficial.
