Govt removes Kasargod as potential new AIIMS site; endosulfan victims cry foul

Alleging that Mangaluru’s hospital lobbies were sabotaging the development of Kasargod’s health infrastructure in Kerala, endosulfan victims of the district would launch a stir.

Activist Daya Bai will begin an indefinite hunger strike in front of the Kerala government secretariat from August 6, demanding better health infrastructure and support systems like day-care for the endosulfan victims of Kasargod, which comes to more than 7,000.

The latest provocation for the stir was Kerala government’s decision to not suggest Kasargod as a location for a new All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) to be set up in the state.

The state witnessed a series of stirs by endosulfan victims, as the Supreme Court-ordered distribution of Rs 5 lakh compensation each was only being done now.

Endosulfan victims’ action council leader Ambalathara Kunhikrishnan said that strong influence from the hospital lobbies of Mangaluru was suspected to be the reason why there was no development in Kasargod’s health infrastructure. Majority of people of Kasargod depend on the hospitals in Mangaluru, even for their routine medical needs. As many as 24 persons in Kasargod died during the Covid-19 lockdown because they could not go to Mangaluru for treatment.

Even though the Kerala government recently appointed a neurologist in Kasargod following the long-pending demand of parents of endosulfan victims—who suffered from mental and physical disabilities—for facilities such as MRI scanning and other hi-tech radiology tests, people still need to depend on neighbouring districts, Kunhikrishnan said.

Daya Bai said that experts had earlier suggested that the dangerous pesticide’s impact could affect up to five generations, hence an institution like AIIMS was essential in the district to conduct research.

Kunhikrishnan also said that there was an urgent need for facilities such as daycares for endosulfan victims, as many parents struggle to take care of their grown-up children with deformities. He also cited the recent instance of a mother ending her life after killing her endosulfan victim daughter. There were two other similar incidents, he said.

As per the Kerala government's official records there are 6,728 endosulfan victims. But at least 1,000 more victims were yet to be included as medical camps to identify victims were not held after 2017, he said.