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Dr Binayak Sen: A medical visionary: His life and work for people in Chhattisgarh,& for public health in India. Jan Swasthya Abhiyan Medico Friends Circle. College Day, Bagayam, late 1960s. Academic qualifications. M.B.B.S. and D.C.H. : Christian Medical College, Vellore.
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Dr Binayak Sen: A medical visionary: His life and work for people in Chhattisgarh,& for public health in India. Jan SwasthyaAbhiyan Medico Friends Circle
Academic qualifications • M.B.B.S. and D.C.H. : Christian Medical College, Vellore. • M.D. Pediatrics: Christian Medical College, Vellore. • One of the top students of the college. • Winner of IDPL National Award for best essay on medical education.
Binayak’s M.D. Thesis was on • MARASMUS AND MALNUTRITION IN CHILDREN • He began to get involved in the issues of hunger, poverty and social inequity.
What did such a bright person do after qualifying as a specialist? I. Taught in the Centre of Social Medicine and Community Health of Jawaharlal Nehru University for two years.
II.Worked for Tuberculosis patients in rural Hoshangabad district – Friends Rural Centre, Rasulia.
III. Worked in a workers’ health movement and towards creating a hospital unparalleled in India and possibly the world.
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 the Steel Plant management to make arrangements 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 the movement.
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.
Hospital of the toilers, by the toilers, for…. everybody • Shaheed Dispensary in 1982 • 15 bedded hospital in 1983 • 50 bedded hospital in 1989 with Operation theater, 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 “I 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. “He told me that he was as qualified as anybody else to handle a mop- so why not? “I cannot understand how that quiet and polite gentleman can be considered seditious.?” Prabir Chatterji, CMC post-graduate
IV. Worked with under-served village communities to develop programs to improve 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 health workers 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.
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.
Standard Treatment Guidelines for Medical Officers, Chhattisgarh
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 in 1984.
People’s Union for Civil Liberties(PUCL)http://www.pucl.org National Seminar in October 1976 (during the “National Emergency”) inaugurated by AcharyaKripalani. “An organization free from political ideologies, so that people belonging to various political parties may come together on one platform for the defence of Civil Liberties and Human Rights.” • Accepts no money from any funding agency, Indian or foreign. Founder: Jaya Prakash Narayan 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)
What 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.
What was Binayak Sen doing in Chattisgarh,for the people of Chhattisgarh, for 30 years? • Improving agriculture, protecting biodiversity. • Helping, advising, contributing to the State Government’s Community Health Programmes. • Defending the rights of citizens, especially the poor and the marginalised. • Ensuring proper treatment of under-trial prisoners. …
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 Health Council. Dr. Sen could not take these awards in person.
Paul Harrison Award CITATION
From the Government of Chhattisgarh in 2007 • Arrest under the Chattisgarh Special Public Security Act 2005
May 14, 2007: Dr. Binayak Sen Arrested in ChhattisgarhUnder ‘Public 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 critical determinant of the health of a people.