District hospital authorities in Damoh have ordered an inquiry after an elderly woman was allegedly made to mop a hospital floor soiled by her ailing son, prompting questions about sanitation arrangements and patient dignity in Madhya Pradesh’s government hospitals.
The incident reportedly took place on Saturday night when Halki Bai, 58, from Simariya village in the Tejgarh area, brought her son to the hospital for treatment. Her son was suffering from diarrhoea and allegedly soiled the floor while at the facility.
According to the report, the nurse on duty handed Bai a mop and made her clean the floor herself. A video of the woman mopping the hospital floor circulated on social media on Sunday night. The video triggered a political dispute over sanitation services at government hospitals in the state.
District hospital authorities said show-cause notices had been issued to the nursing officer on duty, the cleaning agency and the assistant hospital manager. They said further action would be taken after the inquiry is completed.
The authorities said the hospital has around 52 outsourced cleaners and three supervisors. The staffing details are now central to questions about how sanitation duties were being managed when the incident occurred, and whether the cleaning workforce was available at the time.
Bai’s son was later discharged after his condition improved with treatment, according to the report. The alleged conduct has nevertheless raised a separate concern about how patients and caregivers are treated inside public health facilities, particularly when families arrive during night hours with urgent medical needs.
Congress state president Jitu Patwari shared the video on Facebook and questioned the state government and hospital administration. He asked whether government hospitals lacked cleaning staff or whether funds allocated for sanitation were being lost to corruption. These questions form part of the political response to the incident and have not been established by the hospital’s inquiry.
The case places responsibility on several layers of hospital administration, including the nursing staff on duty, the outsourced cleaning agency and the assistant hospital manager. The issuance of show-cause notices indicates that the authorities have begun an administrative process, but the report does not establish the final findings or whether disciplinary action will follow.
The inquiry is expected to determine what happened inside the Damoh district hospital, who was responsible for cleaning the affected area, and whether established sanitation procedures were followed. The hospital authorities said further action would be taken after the inquiry.
