Integrity? What is that?

One of our previous Deans was quite afraid of pressure from higher authorities and also from politicians. Actually the Dean’s post is a quite senior post and the Dean should be able to maintain his stand with integrity irrespective of wrongful pressures from anyone. However this particular Dean was not so. There was a scheme from the Central Government of paying out money to women belonging to scheduled casts, scheduled tribes, and those below the poverty line. It was necessary for the women to provide proof of belonging to one of the categories. We as the treating obstetricians were supposed to receive the documents and certify the women fit for receiving this money. We were quite particular in our work, as a result of which the number of patients receiving the money was quite low. The administrative office from where the money came told us to distribute money to every woman who delivered with us, so that they could show good performance on their part to the Central Government. But they would not give us written instructions to that effect. They were afraid of giving written instructions. They wanted us to be responsible for any trouble arising out of such action. So we would not do what they wanted us to do. They told our Dean that we would not do what they asked us to do. The Dean asked me why. I told him that if we certified women as eligible for the benefits of the scheme without meeting the eligibility criteria, the money paid would be recovered from us after an audit. We would not do something wrong on our own. Sadly the Dean was unable to stand by us. Instead of supporting us and telling us to maintain our right will stand, he told me that if we did not pay the money as asked by that particular office, we would be held responsible for not carrying out the Government’s scheme and be penalized anyway. We still did not succumb to the pressure and continue to perform as before. Finally the administrative office had to send us a document signed by the additional municipal commissioner telling us that there was no need of documentary support and any woman who seemed to be poor should be given the money. The point is not that we won the battle. The point is that the person who was the chief of our institute should have shown integrity and supported us in our legally correct stand, but could not do so. All employees working under him would have shows integrity following his example, but he failed us all quite miserably.