Who will care for retarded and maimed kids?

Excerpts of an interview with Ronald Anil Fernandes of Deccan Herald:

Is there documentary evidence to prove link between endosulfan and human sufferings?

There are more than 600 studies done worldover and anybody can access them through internet on ‘pubmed’ website. A team of doctors, including me, has done studies on rats in 2005 and proved the link. The finding  was published in the year 2005 in medical journal Mutation Research (www.elsevier.­com/locate/gentox).

ICMR Director General Dr V M Katoch has said it requires three years to conduct a survey?

(Laughs…) As far as I know, the ICMR sanctioned Rs 12 lakh way back in 2001 to conduct a study. The ICMR rules say that any study on human beings has to be published. Why was this study not published?

Now, the Stockholm convention has agreed to ban endosulfan across the globe. What next?

It’s good news. But I am worried about those little children who have got good physiology, but are mentally retarded and spastic.
They may live up to 60 or 70 years. If their parents die after some years, who will take care of them?

Why were you recalled by the Karnataka government?

As the president of Human Rights Protection Foundation in Udupi and as a doctor, I have been gathering documentary evidence establishing a link between human sufferings and use of endosulfan pesticide. Perhaps, that is the reason the State government sought my help to guide them.