Like water, there are other essential facilities that need to be provided for everyone, are known as public facilities. The important characteristic of a public facility is that once it is provided, its benefits can be shared by many people. For instance, a school in the village will enable many children to get educated. Similarly, the supply of electricity to an area can be useful for many people:
Given that public facilities are so important, someone must carry the responsibility of providing these to the people. This ‘someone’ is the government. One of the most important functions of the government is to ensure that these public facilities are made available to everyone.
A private company will probably not be interested in undertaking such work. But, for other public facilities such as schools and hospitals, private companies may well be interested. We have many of these, particularly in large cities. Similarly, if you are living in a city, you will have seen private companies supplying water through tankers or supplying drinking water in sealed bottles. In such cases, private companies provide public facilities but at a price that only some people can afford. Hence, this facility is not available to all at an affordable rate. If we go by the rule that people will get as much as they can pay for then many people who cannot afford to pay for such facilities will be deprived of the opportunity to live a decent life. Clearly, this is not a desirable option. Public facilities relate to people’s basic needs. Any modern society requires that these facilities are provided so that people’s basic needs are met.
The Right to Life that the Constitution guarantees is for all persons living in this country. The responsibility to provide public facilities, therefore, must be that of the government.
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