CHENNAI: A Division bench of the Madras High Court has taken suo motu cognizance of a report in a newspaper and issued directives.
The report in a Tamil daily on Tuesday under the heading ‘Immunisation injection resulted in contusion which ultimately turned out to be cancerous growth - child aged six years struggling for life without treatment’, described the untold miseries of the child and his parents in Erode.
The Bench of Justices S Nagamuthu and Anita Sumanth, which treated the report as a suo motu habeas corpus writ petition, directed the chairman of Erode district Child Welfare Committee and the district collector to visit the child Anbarasu at home, persuade his parents and admit him in Adyar Cancer Institute, Chennai immediately. Arrangements should be made for the parents to stay with the boy.
The Bench also directed the State Health Secretary to ensure that the child was treated in Adyar Institute or in any other hospital, as per the advice of doctors and the requirements, at the cost of the State.
The superintendent of police, Erode was directed to provide adequate support to the Erode district collector to bring the child to Chennai for treatment.
The Bench further directed the district collector to record the statements of the parents in case they declined to give consent to bring the child for treatment and to produce the same before the court through the additional public prosecutor (APP) on March 27.
The Bench also directed the Health Secretary, the Erode district collector and the chairman, Erode Child Welfare Committee to file a compliance report through the APP on March 27.
The newspaper report stated that Anbarasu was immunised in a Government institution when he was hardly six months old. His father Radhakrishan (28) and mother Shuseela (24) were construction labourers and in poverty. They were living in Komarapalayam village, Sathyamangalam taluk.
A few days after the injection was given, a contusion appeared on the right thigh. Slowly it grew. The parents were assured by the doctors that the contusion would disappear in due course of time. But it did not. Instead it developed into a cancerous growth.
The weight of the cancerous growth is about 3 kgs now. The parents had spent everything they had for the treatment, but it could not be cured. Now they were unable to continue the treatment as they did not have the means. They sought the help of others for the treatment of their son.
After referring to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Bench said the ‘right to health’ mandated specific measures on the part of the member States to take steps to achieve full realisation of this right as also the Acts of Right to Health and Juvenile Justice.
The State should provide succour to the child if the parents or guardian was found to be unfit or incapacitated to care for and protect the safety and well being of the child, who is suffering from terminal or incurable disease, having no one to support or look after or having parents or guardians unfit to take care of the child or in need of care and protection.
“Despite these laws on child rights, it is unfortunate that Anbarasu is unable to get treatment for the cancerous growth,” the Bench deplored.