KANHANGAD: At 10 am, when around 15 members of civil society were gearing up to launch their indefinite relay hunger strike in front of the District Hospital, 64-year-old Narayani alighted from a private bus.
Narayani was partially blind but managed to reach Chemmattamvayal from Keezhur, a coastal village near Melparamba, 25 km away, on her own.
She said her eyes were watering and had to meet an eye specialist. But the ophthalmology wing of the District Hospital (DH) has been shifted to the Nileshwar Taluk Hospital, another 12 km south. "When I told her that, she held my hand and cried," said Jaya Anto Mangalath, a nun who works with homeless people in Kanhangad.
Mangalath was among the six persons who sat on a hunger strike in front of the District Hospital demanding that it be restored to a non-COVID hospital.
On October 1, the government turned DH into a hospital exclusively for COVID patients, putting people at a lot of inconvenience and hardship.
One month after the DH was turned to a COVID Hospital, the poor, the Dalits, and the tribespeople from the hill panchayat still do not know about the change, said Pavithran Thoyamal (49), an autorickshaw driver. "At least 20 patients come here every day," he said. Pavithran -- a member of the District Hospital Auto Stand -- is among those who sat on the hunger strike in front of the hospital on Monday.
Chemmattamvayal, on the national highway, is 5km from Kanhangad town, and buses on the route are few and far between.
Earlier, the DH did not have a security guard at the gate. Now, it has posted a staffer to redirect patients coming to the hospital to other government health centres where it shifted its services.
District medical officer Dr A V Ramdas said all the services of the DH have been shifted within a 6km radius of the hospital. "But in reality, only one centre is within 6km. Others are between 12 and 30km," said Pavithran.
The civil society members took Narayani, who reached the DH to meet an eye specialist, to the police officers posted there. The officers pooled in some money and sent her to Nileshwar Taluk Hospital in an autorickshaw. "We don't know how she will return home from Nileshwar. She hardly had money," said the nun.
No pharmacy
When Narayani left, another autorickshaw pulled up near the District Hospital. Sreejith K and his wife Usha K P of Ajanur Kadappuram got out of the autorickshaw with their five-year-old daughter Sreedevi Sreejith, who is an endosulfan-affected child.
Sreedevi was born with at least four ailments such as narrow airway, hole in the heart, kidney ailment, and growth disorders.
On Monday, her parents took her to the District Early Intervention Centre (DEIC), now shifted to the Primary Health Centre (PHC) at Anandashram. "I have TB and I don't want my daughter to get it. So I took her to the hospital to get her some medicine. The doctor prescribed two tonics for her," said Sreejith, a fisherman who had stopped going out to the sea because of his deteriorating health. The family is financially dependent on Sreejith's mother Nirmala A K (58), who sells fish at Mavungal.
Monday morning, Sreejith and Usha paid Rs 100 as autorickshaw fare to reach the PHC at Anandashram from Ajanur Kadappuram. But the PHC does not have a pharmacy, so they had to pay another Rs 60 to come to the District Hospital to get the medicines. Medicines are given free of cost to patients at Karunya Pharmacy on the premises of the District Hospital.
This is the case with every patient going to the DEIC at Anandashram, said Ramachandran K P, who runs a grocery shop near the District Hospital. "Poor people have to pay and travel to DH just to get their medicines after consulting their doctors in faraway health centres," he said. He was also on the hunger strike in front of the hospital on Monday.
Tata Hospital
"We will not call off our strike till the District Hospital starts issuing OP tickets," said Anees Thoyamal, who is another person on hunger strike. Anees owns tipper trucks and an excavator.
In April, when Collector D Sajith Babu said that the Tata-built hospital would be up and running in 90 days, Anees was among the many who bought the grandiose announcement.
When the collector exhorted the Construction Equipment Owners' Association (CEOA) to level the earth at the hospital's site at Thekkil for free of cost for the larger cause of society, Anees too sent in his machinery. "Seventy-two heavy-duty machinery was used to level the three-acre site. The association did work worth Rs 1.5 crore for the project. But now is sitting on the structure," said a disappointed Anees.
T Azeez, a retired Excise inspector sitting on the hunger strike said, the government should not have ruthlessly fooled the people. "If the government had initiated the process to appoint staff and buy equipment for the Tata hospital in April, we would not have to protest today," he said. When the civil society members visited the Tata-built 551-bed hospital, Azeez said, there were only one doctor and four nurses.
He said snakebite victims have to go to Kasaragod General Hospital for antivenom. The extra distance of 30km for patients coming from the eastern hill panchayats can be fatal, he said.
Mangalath, the nun, said she used to bring a lot of homeless persons to the District Hospital for treatment. "Now with services spread over five or six centres, even that has turned a costly affair," she said.
In the initial days of COVID, the government took care of the homeless people for two months, she said. But now, they are on the road again, Mangalath said. "COVID cannot be contained if they are not taken care of," she said.
Faisal Cherakadathu, a distributor of FMCG goods, and among the six persons staging the hunger strike, said there were a lot of government buildings lying unused. "The district administration should use them to accommodate them," he said.
Even the District Hospital has a brand new multi-storey building that could be turned into a COVID block and spared the rest of the hospital for non-COVID patients, said Faisal. "These things can be easily done if the officials have the interest of the people in mind," he said.
Future protests
The indefinite relay hunger strike -- organised by the People's Action Committee -- will be carried forward by mothers of endosulfan survivors on Tuesday, said Ambalathara Kunhikrishnan, the convenor of the committee said.
On Wednesday, members of the Dalit and Adivasi communities will sit on hunger strike, he said. On Thursday, the youths and Friday, the traders will stage the protest, he said.
The civil society members have launched the indefinite protest when Kasaragod Lok Sabha member Rajmohan Unnithan called off his protest demanding the opening of the Tata-built hospital.