In K'taka, victims battle social, administrative apathy

A cloud of dust trails behind the vehicle as it comes to a screeching halt in front of Rajeevi Poojary’s house in Buderiya in Alankaru Gram Panchayat in Puttur taluk. Rajeevi, 54, and her husband, Sunanda Poojary, 58, gather all strength to shift their three children Vidya, Dinakar and Dinesh, in their thirties, from the house into the van. From here, the van begins its routine morning trip of picking up endosulfan victims and dropping them at the endosulfan day-care centre in Koila, 5 km away.

Rajeevi works as an attendant at the same centre and returns home in the evening with her children. She is worried about the future of her children with the government delaying the implementation of a proposed permanent home for endosulfan victims. “What will happen to my physically disabled and mentally challenged children after my death?” she asks.

Hameed and Maimuna of Kumbra in Olamogaru Gram Panchayat said they no longer had the will to fight with officials and access benefits for their bedridden son Mohammed Anees (15). Hameed says his many requests for a waterbed mattress had received no response from the primary health centre and the taluk health officer. He recollects that his neighbour’s endosulfan-affected daughter, Pushpavathi, passed away due to bedsores in September 2018.

“We hear a lot of assurances for endosulfan victims, but receive none,” says Radha from Uruva. Though Akshatha has been identified as one among the 207 bedridden endosulfan victims by the district administration, the mobile medical unit with a physiotherapist has not visited the house so far, Radha says. In the information collected under RTI, district health office had information about only 159 such victims.

Most of the 4,000 families with endosulfan victims in Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Uttara Kannada districts are fighting a battle against poverty and government apathy. Though the government has released stipend, opened two-day care centres and facilitated cash-free medical care in private hospitals, a feeling that the government machinery has failed to address their problems persists among the victims and their caretakers. “The feeling is justified,” says RTI activist Sanjeeva Kabaka. The data he has gathered over the years point to the government’s lack of will on making amends to the victims suffering for no fault of theirs.

After the Karnataka High Court’s final judgement in an endosulfan case in 2015, the government had pledged to carry out welfare schemes for endosulfan victims. Yet, hundreds of individuals with neurological disorders, congenital malformation like hemiplegia, among others continued to be denied of the monthly stipend. Not just them, some of those who were certified as endosulfan victims have also not received the monthly stipend of Rs 3,000.

Yamuna’s two children, Mithun and Trupthi, were earlier receiving a disability pension of Rs 500. After being included in the list of endosulfan victims, only Mithun began receiving the stipend. District Legal Services Authority’s letter to deputy commissioner recommending release of stipend to Trupthi’s bank account received no response. According to information obtained under RTI by Sanjeeva in July 2018, DC had attributed the delay in releasing stipend in 102 cases due to glitches in the software.

A month later, the DC, responding to a notice from the Karnataka State Human Rights Commission, declared that the stipend was not released in 360 cases. In November 2018, DC had informed the nine-member assurances committee, headed by K C Kondaiah, that technical glitches had delayed the release of stipend in 426 cases. Despite hiring four mobile medical units, district health and family welfare department is unaware of the exact number of endosulfan victims who are bedridden.

Peer Mohammed Sahib of District Endosulfan Virodhi Horata Samithi remembers meeting different chief ministers as many as 25 times to get the five acres land reserved for the project in Alankaru. Now, he is on a mission to get funds for permanent houses for the victims.

Lack of facilities

When the government’s budget submitted in 2017 ignored the demands of endosulfan victims, which included a compensation of Rs 10 lakh, permanent centre in each taluk, Rs 2,000 pension for caretakers, a nurse specialised in palliative care in each village, Endo Virodhi Horata Samithi President Sridhar Gowda K along with hundreds of endosulfan victims and their caretakers had staged a protest in Kokkada in May 2017.

Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy’s budget has been a bigger disappointment, Sridhar Gowda says, and adds that Kumaraswamy during a visit to Kokkada had visited the houses of endosulfan victims and is thus aware of the problems. “I was expecting that he would hike the stipend which has not been increased since 2014,” he rued.

A nine-member assurance committee of legislative council led by its chairman K C Kondaiah had directed district administration to implement government’s order on providing free ration to victims of endosulfan poisoning. The committee during an interaction with stakeholders in deputy commissioner’s office in 2018 also had ordered district administration to sort out last mile issues in providing healthcare to endosulfan victims by convening a meeting of super specialty hospitals. The committee had also ordered a joint survey of open wells and borewells.

The reports of High Court amicus curiae and other commissions recommending a permanent house for endosulfan victims to the government has been gathering dust.