Binayak Sen 2011

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Dr Binayak Sen: A medical visionary:

His life and work for people in

Chhattisgarh,& for public health inIndia.

J an Swasthya Abhiyan

Medico Friends¶ Circle

Free Binayak Sen Campaign²Doctors in Solidarity





College Day, Bagayam, late 1960s



Academic qualifications

M.B.B.S. in 1972 and D.C.H. : Christian MedicalCollege, Vellore.

M.D. Pediatrics in 1976: Christian MedicalCollege, Vellore.

One of the top students of the college.

Winner of IDPL National Award for best essayon medical education.



Binayak¶s M.D. Thesis was on

MARASMUS AND

MALNUTRITION INCHILDREN He began to get involved in the

issues of hunger, poverty and socialinequity.



What did such a bright person do

after qualifying as a specialist?

I. Taught in the Centre of Social Medicineand Community Health of Jawaharlal

Nehru University for two years²1976-¶78.



II.Worked for Tuberculosis patients in rural

Hoshangabad district ± Friends Rural

Centre, Rasulia 1978-1981.



III. Worked in a workers¶ health movement inChhattisgarh and towards creating a

hospital unparalleled in India and possibly

the world.



Chhattisgarh was a part of Madhya

Pradesh



Chhattisgarh as it is now



Dalli Rajhara, District Durg.

Contractual workers of the iron ore mines

of Bhilai Steel Plant at Dalli Rajhara.

Pathetic living conditions.

No access to healthcare.



In late seventies

Chhattishgarh Mines Shramik Sangh vice-

president Kusumbai died during childbirth

in the Steel plant hospital in Dalli Rajhara

being neglected by the doctors and

nurses.

Workers vowed to build a maternity home

their own.



Safai Andolan

In 1980 the workers struggled forcing theSteel Plant management to makearrangements for waste disposal in the

slums. Dalli-Rajhara came to limelight when Com.

Shankar Guha Niyogi was arrested under

MISA for the anti-mechanisation struggle. Doctors got attracted towards themovement.



Shaheed Hospital -Dalli Rajhara

A program of the toilers by the toilers.

No external funding, constructed by the

workers from contribution from their wages.

Workers participate in decision making

and day to day functioning.

Vision of Shankar Guha Niyogi, and

doctors like Dr. Binayak Sen, Dr. Asis

Kumar Kundu, Dr. Saibal Jana.



Shankar Guha Niyogi²an unique

trade-union leader



A UNIQUE HOSPITAL IS BORN



Hospital of the toilers, by the toilers,

for«. everybody

Shaheed Dispensary in 1982

15 bedded hospital in 1983

50 bedded hospital in 1989 with Operationtheater, laboratory, pharmacy.

Served people of 150 km radius

Major emphasis on demystification of medicines

rational therapy, cost reduction and equity.



Shaheed HospitalOf the toilers, by the toilers for

everyone .



Observations by a Doctor on Binayak

in Shaheed Hospital ³I met Dr Sen first in August 1984. He was examining a child

in the verandah of the Shaheed Hospital when the child passed stools. Binayak went and fetched a mop and

cleaned up the mess.³He told me that he was as qualified as anybody else to

handle a mop- so why not?

³I cannot understand how that quiet and polite gentleman can

be considered seditious.?´

Prabir Chatterjee, CMC post-graduate



IV. Worked with under-served village

communities to develop programs toimprove their health, education and

agriculture.



1994: Rupantar

Raipur: Nagri Sihawa Block, Bagrumnala Vill.

People displaced by dam-building in the upper

Mahanadi catchment area.

Previous health services practically non-existent.



Trained, deployed, monitored community healthworkers in 20 villages.

Provided referral backup for these workers.

Basic medical lab with locally trained technician.

Care for a variety of illnesses e.g. Falciparum

malaria, tuberculosis.



A people ««



And their doctor««





The first school in Kekrakholi..



Improving yields«.



Protecting Chattisgarh¶s rich

biodiversity





Women¶s issues



IV. Worked to strengthen primary and

secondary health care in Chhattisgarh



Member , State Advisory Committee on

Health Sector Reforms.

Implementation of the Mitanin Programme

in 2 blocks of the state.



Mitanin Programme







Chhattisgarh State Drug Formulary



Standard Treatment Guidelines for Medical Officers, Chhattisgarh



V. Worked for provision and protection of

human rights of the poor and the

marginalised in Chhattisgarh and India.

Initiated to human rights movement

when he was a member of P.U.C.L.

team investigating police firing of

workers of Rajnandgaon B.N.C.Mills in1984.



People¶s Union for Civil Liberties

(PUCL) http://www.pucl.org

National Seminar in October 1976 (during the ³National Emergency´)inaugurated by Acharya Kripalani.

´An organization free from political ideologies, so that people belonging to various political parties may cometogether on one platform for

the defence of Civil Libertiesand Human Rights.µ

Accepts no money from any funding agency, Indian or foreign.

Founder: Jaya PrakashNarayan

President: K.G. Kannabiran

6 Vice Presidents

Binayak Sen (Chhattisgarh)

Mathew Manakattu (Kerala)

Prabhakar Sinha (Bihar)Ravi Kiran Jain (UP)

Yogesh Kamdar (Mumbai)

Sudha Ramalingam (TN and Puduseri)



Protecting Human Rights in

Chhattisgarh Right to Food campaign: Binayak is on

Executive committee for Right to Food

petition.

Chhattisgarh Bio-diversity Security Forum:

Protest against Syngenta.

Probes into custodial death: Supela

episode.



Probes into land acquisitions by corporates.

Legal aid to undertrials.

Investigations into the human rights issues

related to the crisis in Bastar.

Protests against the Chhattisgarh Special Public

Security Act.



Frontline,

March 2006

" These senseless killings are unfortunate and must stop.

Both sides should sit down to talk and find a way to peace"

said Binayak Sen, a PUCL activist in Raipur

(source: PURNIMA S. TRIPATHI in Dantewada, Chhattisgarh. Writing inthe magazine FRONTLINE, Volume 23 - Issue 05 :: Mar. 11 - 24, 2006)



W hat was Binayak Sen doing in Chattisgarh,for the

people of Chhattisgarh, for 30 years?

Building hospital still being successfully run by mine

& factory workers.

Training people in villages to look after the health of their own communities.

Running free clinics in areas where medical

facilities are not available.

Providing education to tribal children.



W hat was Binayak Sen doing in Chattisgarh,for the

people of Chhattisgarh, for 30 years?

Improving agriculture, protecting biodiversity.

Helping, advising, contributing to the StateGovernment¶s Community Health Programmes.

Defending the rights of citizens, especially the poor

and the marginalised.

Ensuring proper treatment of under-trial prisoners.

«



What did he get inreturn?



From his college in 2004

The Paul Harrison Award for outstanding

contribution to health care in rural areas.



R.R. Khaitan Award from Indian Academy

of Social Sciences in 2007.

Jonathan Mann Award from Global HealthCouncil.

Dr. Sen could not take these awards in

person.



Paul Harrison Award

CITATI ON



From the Government of

Chhattisgarh in 2007

Arrest under the Chattisgarh Special

Public Security Act 2005



May 14, 2007:

Dr. Binayak Sen Arrested in Chhattisgarh

Under µPublic Security Act¶

WHY ??!!



Binayak Sen

Worked constructively and untiringly for the poor living in some of the most difficult

regions of the country.

Worked in the public domain, and with

constructive engagement with the

Government



With democratic institutions

Spoke against violence.

Never committed a single unlawful act.



Binayak Sen

Raised not only the issue of health as a

basic human right.

But also ««

The protection of human rights as a criticaldeterminant of the health of a people.



Binayak raised issues without

fear or favor « Against the Congress Government : The

protection of land and livelihood rights of

tribals to be displaced by the Steel plant at

Nagarnar

Against the BJP Government : For human

rights violations in the ongoing SalwaJudum campaign in Dantewada.



What is the price to be paid for voicing

dissent peacefully and raising issuesdemocratically in a free country ?

Detention under an Act which considersany kind of dissent, or disobedience, even

unlinked with any violence as an

Unlawful activity. General ³tendency´ to disobedience can

be punished. No overt act is necessary.



The protests against Binayak Sen¶s arrest.

Widespread and continuing««.

Numerous organisations,

Hundreds of leading citizens, intellectuals,and medical academics.

Thousands of doctors, medical students,

common people in chattisgarh,

Protests in tens of Indian cities and across

the world«««.



Amidst nation-wide and international protest

Dr. Sen was granted bail by a vacation

bench of the Supreme Court on May 20 ,

2009.



On December 24, 2010 the district sessions

court of Raipur sentenced Binayak to life

imprisonment. He is guilty of sedition

according to the court.

WHY THE STATE CONSIDERS DR. SEN

DANGEROUS??



Chhattisgarh is rich in minerals



Mineral reserves

Iron ore, coal, bauxite, lime stone

Only state having tin ore reserve

Gold, diamond and corundum reservesdiscovered.



Most of the mineral reserves are in

forest.

44% of the land of Chhattisgarh is under

forest cover.

21% of India is forest.

8% of India¶s population is tribal.

33% of Chhattsigarh¶s population is tribal.

Tribals reside mostly in the forest villages.



Forest area of Chhattisgarh



Surge of Industrialisation

Government plans to set up

Over 60 coal-based power plants

generating 50,000 MW electricity (state¶s

requirment is 5000 MW).

Over 40 new steel plants

Large Cement factories.



State intends to displace the tribals

Tribals fight back

State raised a private army²Salwa Judum

Villagers confined in camps to µprotectthem from maoists¶.

Actually to evict them from their villages.

Hundreds are killed in µcivil war¶ betweenSalwa Judum and Maoists.



Binayak despises violence

He is against terror both red (maoist terror)

and white (state terror)

As National Vice-president and

Chhattisgarh State General Secretary of

P.U.C.L., he led and assisted many fact-

finding teams exposing the state terror.



HE IS DANGEROUS

Binayak is dangerous for the state

because he exposes state terror.

because he opposes state¶s notion of

µdevelopment¶.



When I give food to the

poor, they call me a saint.

When I ask why the poor

have no food, they call

me a Communist.

- Dom Helder Pessoa Camara, former

Roman Catholic archbishop of Olinda and

Recife, Brazil



´First They CameµFirst they came for the

Communists, and I didn·t

speak up because I wasn·t aCommunist.

Then they came for the Jews, and

I didn·t speak up because I

wasn·t a Jew.

Then they came for the Catholics,

and I didn·t speak up because I

was a Protestant.

Then they came for me, and by

that time there was nobody left

to speak up.

- Pastor Martin Niemoller, 1892-1984



SPEAK UP

RESIST

THE SILENT

EMERGENCY

Documents

Binayak Sen 2011