Victims of the endosulfan spraying allege neglect and lethargy on the part of the Kerala government amidst several broken promises.
A protest in Kasargod demanding inclusion of 1,031 endosulfan victims into the official list. (Madhuraj)
Muneesa Ambalathara, a victim of the residual harm caused by the aerial spraying of endosulfan in the northernmost villages of Kerala’s Kasaragod district, has reason to believe that the Kerala government is treating those who were maimed and devastated by the banned pesticide as a liability.
While 6,728 residents have been identified as victims of the aerial spraying of the pesticide in the state-run cashew plantations of the region, they still have nit received any of the protections promised in the last three years.
The government is also sitting on a list of 1,031 additional victims for the past five years, without citing any reason. Most of them have physical ailments and an expert team of doctors recommended that they be added to the official list of victims of endosulfan use between the 1970s and 2001 in 11 villages of Kasaragod district.
Victims of endosulfan at a recent protest in Kasaragod. (Madhuraj)
Despite repeated assurances from Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, the victims are now without hope.
“We have organised protests in Kasargod in the last two months, inviting the government’s attention. Now, we have no option but to extend the agitation to the state secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram. The government seems indifferent to our demands,” Muneesa told South First.
“Each of those who were on the list of victims has already received financial assistance of ₹5 lakh. After disbursing that money, the government has taken a stand that it has no more commitments to them,” said A Kunhikrishnan, leader of the People’s Front for Endosulfan Victims.
“It has forgotten the earlier promise to extend the benefits to the 1,031 victims outside the official list. Without proper medical care, most victims falling ill regularly. The death rate among the victims has also started increasing alarmingly. In the last 12 months, 67 victims have died without proper medical care,” Kunhikrishnan told South First.
Endosulfan victims organises a protest in Kasaragod. (Madhuraj)
The government’s Special Cell for Rehabilitation of Endosulfan Victims, which was started in Kasargod over two decades ago with much fanfare, is now struggling without proper staff. It currently has four employees on deputation in the place of two dozen officials that existed before.
The cell is struggling to go through victims’ petitions and find solutions to them by coordinating with different government departments.
According to Kunhikrishnan, a Supreme Court order on compensation to endosulfan victims of Kasargod directs the state government to seek ₹200 crore from the endosulfan company. If the company refuses to pay the amount, the court said that the state can claim it from the Union government.
Kunhikrishnan added that the state government has not yet raised such a demand before the Union government, despite continued reminders from the victims.
The aerial spraying of the banned pesticide between 1978 and 2001 killed over 500 people of Kasargod, besides maiming and devastating 6,728 others living in and around the cashew plantations.
“As many as 1,905 people were found to be affected by endosulfan in a medical camp conducted in 2017. However, only 287 were included in the list of victims by the government. Following a stir by the victims in front of the Secretariat in 2019, the government included those under 18. But a decision on including the remaining 1,031 was still pending,” said writer and activist Ambikasuthan Mangad.
Kunhikrishnan said that the endosulfan victims would be forced to go on an indefinite strike again if the government ignores their demands.
Daya Bai on her hunger strike in front of the Kerala Secretariat in 2022. (KA Shaji/South First)
“Healthcare facilities are abysmal in Kasargod, despite tall claims by the state government. Almost three years have gone by since the then health minister KK Shailaja inaugurated a catheterisation (Cath) lab at the district hospital. Still, the government is yet to appoint a cardiologist there,” said MA Rahman, an anti-endosulfan activist.
“This contradicts the assurance given by the government to activist Daya Bai, who organised a fast in 2022 in support of endosulfan victims. The government has not kept its word to conduct special medical camps by March this year to identify endosulfan victims who have not been identified so far,” Rahman told South First.
The last time the government conducted such a camp was six years ago, in 2017. That camp was conducted after endosulfan victims and activists had organised several protests.
According to Rahman, many children born with physical and intellectual disabilities are denied free-of-cost speciality care, pension, and compensation given to endosulfan victims.
Now, the mothers of the victims outside the official list have formed a collective — Endosulfan 1031 Protest Committee — to hit the streets to press for their demand.
“Our only demand to the government is to include 1,031 patients in the list of endosulfan victims,” said the collective’s convenor P Shyni.
A child victim of the aerial spraying of endosulfan. (Madhuraj)
From the mid-1970s to 2011, the state government-owned Plantation Corporation of Kerala (PCK) aerially sprayed endosulfan on its cashew plantations in 11 grama panchayats in Kasargod to protect the crop from tea mosquito bugs.
In October 2022, the government made four promises to end the 18-day hunger strike of 82-year-old activist Daya Bai.
Kerala ministers Veena George and R Bindu gave signed statements to Daya Bai that the government would conduct special medical camps to identify endosulfan victims in five months. Ten months on, parents of children born with disabilities in the past six years are still waiting for the medical camps.
The two ministers also assured Daya Bai that the government would set up daycare centres for children with disabilities in every grama panchayat in Kasaragod and would open a Neurology Department in the district hospital in one year. The government has one more month to hit the deadline.
Endosulfan victims and their relatives on a protest in Kasargod. (Madhuraj)
“Healthcare facilities are pathetic in Kasargod. A mother and child hospital was inaugurated last year, but it is not functioning. The demand to convert a speciality hospital constructed two years ago for Covid patients into a neuro specialist hospital to treat those mentally affected by the aerial spraying of endosulfan also failed to evoke any response,” said Daya Bai when contacted by South First.
“I am planning another indefinite fast for these forgotten people,” she added..
“Nowhere else in India have I seen such an unfortunate group of people. Two decades of intense spraying of the killer pesticide created a situation in which thousands of people were born with either deformities or mental or physical disorders, or other severe health complications.
“The most painful thing is that Kerala has ignored them shamelessly,” she said.
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