KASARAGOD: Renowned social activist Daya Bai is going on an indefinite hunger strike in front of Kerala secretariat demanding speciality health care for endosulfan-affected persons in Kasaragod district. The 82-year-old woman will begin her fast on Saturday, August 6.
"Our demands are nothing special. Health care is a right to life. It is a fundamental right," she said on phone from Thiruvananthapuram.
Daya Bai has three key demands: one, include Kasaragod in the list of proposed sites for All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS); two, make available speciality medical care to endosulfan patients; and three, set up daycare centres for endosulfan patients so that their caregivers and parents can go to work.
Going by any yardstick, AIIMS should be set up in Kasaragod because it is the only district without tertiary health care in Kerala, she said. "Around 20 patients lost their lives at the borders of the district during Covid lockdown because Karnataka government did not allow them to access hospitals in Mangaluru. And Kasaragod did not have specialty hospitals to treat them," she said.
A high court judge made a sad but honest commentary on the state of health affairs in Kasaragod when a cancer patient from Kasaragod sought relief from debt incurred for the treatment, she said. "The judge said it was the responsibility of the state government to provide free of cost treatment to cancer patients but our government has failed in that," Daya Bai said.
Single parents and caregivers are struggling without daycare centres for endosulfan patients, she said. An arts and science college is run from a palliative care centre in Karinthalam, she said. "Health care is completely neglected, it is a horrible human rights violation. I want to highlight it and also push the government to rectify it," she said.
Daya Bai said she was 82 years but felt like 28 years old and was ready for the long hunger strike.
Meanwhile, the civil society in Kasaragod has formed a Daya Bai Hunger Strike Protest Committee to coordinate the protest activities. The committee will organise a stand-in protest at Kasaragod Bus Stand from 3 pm to 5 pm on Saturday.
The AIIM for Kasaragod collective said it will organise a 24 hours hunger strike in Kanhangad on Saturday to express solidarity with Daya Bai.
On August 10, the collective will lay siege to the Kasaragod Medical College building in Ukkinadka to highlight the lack of progress there.
On August 14, the civil society group said they would take out a health care freedom march in Kanhangad.
"The government will have to wake up to the demands of Kasaragod," said Daya Bai.