KASARAGOD: On a day when the Union government told a Kerala MP that it has given in-principle approval to set up an AIIMS in Kerala, around 150 women staged a day-long hunger strike in Kasaragod town demanding that the state government consider setting up the premier health institute in the district.
The women were marking the 100th day of the indefinite relay hunger strike being held in the town by the AIIMS for Kasaragod Collective on Saturday.
In the last parliament session, Vadakara MP K Muraleedharan had asked the Union government to sanction All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) in Kerala. In the reply now, the minister of state for health Bharati Pravin Pawar told the MP that the ministry had given in-principle approval to the project and the file has been sent to the Ministry of Finance. "I got the reply today. But the in-principle approval is not new. The file has been with the Ministry of Finance for the past four months," Muraleedharan told TNIE.
To be sure, the stated policy of the Union government is to set up one AIIMS in every state under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY).
Officially, the state government had proposed four sites in Thiruvananthapuram, Kottayam and Kozhikode district to set up the institute. But Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and the previous health minister K K Shailaja had said that the government had identified 200 acres at Kinalur in Kozhikode district for the project.
In March, Rajya Sabha member John Brittas asked the Union government in the House if it was aware that the state government had identified land for the project in Kinalur. Minister Pawar did not respond to the question.
For the past several years, the civil society in Kasaragod had been demanding that the state government consider the district for the project considering it does not have a tertiary care hospital and was depending on the neighbouring state for its health care needs.
Since January 13, the AIIMS for Kasaragod collective has been on a relay hunger strike near the New Bus Stand in Kasaragod raising the demand.
"Till today, at least 700 persons, mostly women, have sat on hunger strike in the protest tent," said Ambalathara Kunhikrishnan, convenor of the collective.
On Saturday, the organisers planned that 101 women would stage a hunger strike to mark the 100th day of the protest. "But 153 women came forward to take part in the protest on Saturday," said Nazar Cherkalam, another leader of the protest.
In the run-up to the 100 days of protest, the collective had formed a human chain, and also staged a placard holding protest when the Chief Minister visited Kasaragod on April 1.
The site for the project would be finalised after an inspection of proposed sites by an expert committee of the Ministry of Health. "We want Kasaragod to be considered for the inspection," said Nazar.
On Thursday, the Students Federation of India (SFI), the students' wing of the CPM, brought out a report on the status of higher education in Kasaragod and it recommended that AIIMS should be set up in the district.
Kasaragod does not have a government-run engineering college or a nursing college or a law college or a medical college, the report said. It will be the only district in Kerala without a tertiary care hospital.
With the Union government giving in-principle approval for AIIMS in Kerala, the collective said it would have to shift the stage of protest to the capital city Thiruvananthapuram. "We deserve to be heard. The government cannot ignore us. We are having a meeting on Monday to decide on the future course of action," said Kunhikrishnan, a veteran social activist.