Human rights activist Daya Bai has had many fights with the establishment in her life. Over the last seven decades, she had raised her voice for marginalised sections from various parts of this country. Her current fight is for the northernmost (and the most unprivileged) district of Kerala—Kasaragod.
Since October 2—the Gandhi Jayanti—she is on a hunger strike in front of the Kerala secretariat demanding the state government to end its apathy towards Kasaragod—a land that has over 6,000 Endosulfan pesticide exposure victims. On October 4, Kerala Police shifted Bai from her protest site to a general hospital, however she left the hospital within hours saying that medical facilities are required not for her but, for the people of Kasaragod. On October 7 evening, she was once again shifted by the Kerala police to the general hospital in Thiruvananthapuram. “In 2018, I went to see the endosulfan-affected people of Kasaragod. It was a heartbreaking scene. It is from then I decided that I should do something of my capacity for them,” Bai told THE WEEK.
In July, while receiving an award instituted by Kerala-based publishers Ivory Books, Bai had said about residents of Kasaragod, “In my 40 years of social service across the country, I have never seen such a helpless society. Twenty years of poison spraying left thousands of people born with either deformities or mental or physical disorders or other severe health complications. Society and the government shun them mercilessly.”
The group of activists currently protesting along with Bai say that the state government has so far not made any steps to hear their demands. “We gave a letter raising our demands months before,” says Ambalathara Kunjikrishnan, chairman of the protest group. “We have only four demands. The first one is that the government should include Kasaragod also in the AIIMS proposal. We are not even asking that AIIMS should be given to Kasaragod. Just wanted its name to be there in the proposal. We deserve at least that much consideration.”
Kasaragod is arguably the most backward in terms of healthcare facilities in the state. Most people from the district primarily depend on speciality hospitals in Mangaluru, Karnataka even now for critical cases. “We do not have enough hospitals in the district. Not one of the [government-run] hospitals has super-speciality facilities. The foundation stone for the Ukkinadka Medical College was laid in 2013. But until now, the government could build only the academic block for it. We had waited so long for a neurologist in the district. Recently, the government appointed one. But still, we do not have the infrastructure required for neurological treatments. For an MRI scan, we have to travel around 100km—to Kannur Medical College,” said Kunjikrishnan.
Kunjikrishnan added, “Kasaragod is a place that is still reeling from the damage done by the endosulfan tragedy. Many of our kids and youth are suffering from neurological troubles. If the government says that they do not have funds for ensuring health facilities in the district, it is a big lie. They have money for many other things. So setting up speciality hospitals with adequate infrastructure is another demand from us.”
The activist says that the government stopped the screening for finding new endosulfan victims. “The last medical camp for screening was held in 2017. The government has failed to keep the promise that screenings will be held every year,” says Kunjikrishnan.
It was on a PIL by DYFI, the youth organisation of CPI(M) that the Supreme Court ordered a ban on the manufacture, sale and use of endosulfan. In 2017, in another petition filed by DYFI, the top court ordered the state government to pay compensation to victims of endosulfan exposure. However, in May this year, the SC slammed the LDF government saying that it virtually did nothing for the endosulfan victims in the last five years. During the medical screening camps held in 2010, 2011, 2013 and 2017 in the district, 6,727 people (in five categories) were identified to be the direct victims of Endosulfan, points out Kunjikrishnan.
“Even now children [with birth defects because of endosulfan exposure] are being born in Kasaragod. We asked the government to do a proper study and find the current status,” he says. “In the government’s list, 6,727 people are there. But, there are many others who could not find a place on this list. In the 2017 camp itself, 1905 people were originally identified. Then deputy collector of Kasaragod gave this info to us. But the government systems wanted to show a much lesser count. The final count mysteriously got reduced to 287. Then we started an agitation, after which 76 persons more were added to the list. But this new list also discarded a large section of victims.
In 2019, when mothers of endosulfan victims and some affected children protested, Chief Minister gave promised that from the 1,905, all those below the age of 18 will be directly put into the list; medical records of all those above 18 will be examined and be considered whether they qualify to be in the victims’ list. According to this compromise decision, around 511 were on this list. However, no decision has been taken in the case of the rest 1,031. So, another major demand from us is to conduct yearly screening camps.”
The protesters also demand the government to start daycare centres for all those who are mentally retarded and paralysed. “Currently those who are above 18 are not given admission in buds schools (special schools for children with mental and physical challenges),” says Kunjikrishnan. “So, it is a necessity that government open day care centres for those with mental and physical challenges,” he said.
