BHOPAL ACTIVISTS SHOW SOLIDARITY WITH FREE BINAYAK SEN CAMPAIGN

FREE DR BINAYAK SEN CAMPAIGN
PRESS RELEASE
16 April 2008

In a show of solidarity with the campaign for the release of Dr Binayak Sen, a delegation of activists representing the Bhopal gas tragedy survivors visited the second Free Binayak Sen Medical Camp in New Delhi on 13 April.

Speaking to members of the Jai Hind community, where the medical camp was organized, Satinath Sarangi of the Bhopal Group for Information and Action talked about Dr Sen’s important contribution to public health in Chattisgarh and his work on human rights. Dr Sen, renowned internationally for his humanitarian work, is currently detained by the Chattisgarh government on false charges of aiding the underground Maoist movement.

“To arrest a person of Dr Sen’s record of public service, non-violent social work and deep commitment to the poor is a complete travesty of justice” said Satinath Sarangi. He offered to hold medical camps in Bhopal in support of Dr Sen’s release through the Sambhavana clinic, which caters to over 30,000 people still suffering from the after effects of the gas disaster of 3 December 1984.

Other activists from Bhopal talked about the problems facing the survivors of the world’s worst industrial disaster. Around 300 such survivors, who have walked over 800 kilometers from Bhopal to New Delhi, are in the national capital to highlight their demands for setting up a Special Commission on Bhopal to address various issues affecting local people and to prosecute Dow Chemicals which inherited the criminal and other liabilities of Union Carbide, the US multinational responsible for the Bhopal gas tragedy.

At the Free Binayak Sen Medical Camp over 150 patients from the Jai Hind community were treated for a variety of ailments – many of them linked to low nutrition, poor quality of drinking water and sanitation available in the area. The camp was organized by the Delhi based Sajha Manch and its associated organisations as part of a nationwide initiative for the release of popular health and human rights activist Dr Binayak Sen.

“Training local youth in basic principles of medical care will be helpful to them as well as the community in general ” said Dr Jacob Puliyal, one of the doctors volunteering his services for the camp. Doctors participating in the Free Binayak Sen Medical Camps have offered to provide such training to youth from the Jai Hind community and this is expected to commence in May this year.

The initiative, of holding monthly Free Binayak Sen Medical Camps for the urban and rural poor, in cities and towns around the country – is meant to raise public awareness about Dr Sen’s detention under the draconian Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, and call for his unconditional release.

The camps are also part of an effort to take forward Dr Sen’s innovative public health work to new areas and highlight the issues of nutrition, child health and the link between socio-economic rights and health. According to a recent report by the news channel IBN/CNN over 6000 children die every day due to malnutrition in India, a situation worse than prevailing in sub-Saharan Africa.

Other Free Binayak Sen Medical Camps are planned among urban poor communities for April in Chennai, Coimbatore, Bangalore and Kolkata.

For further information contact:

Dunu Roy, New Delhi qadeeroy at vsnl.com Ph: 9910687627

Satya Sivaraman, New Delhi satyasagar at gmail.com Ph: 9818514952

Dr Rakhal Gaitonde, Chennai subharakhal at gmail.com Ph: 9940246089

Dr Punyabrata Gun, Kolkata shramajibiswasthya at yahoo.co.in Ph: 9830922194

Dr N.Devadasan, Bangalore deva at devadasan.com Ph: 9448491355

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