Renowned social activist launches hunger strike for endosulfan victims

By Anand Mathew

Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 2, 2022: Daya Bai, a renowned social activist, launched an indefinite satyagraha to demand justice for the victims of endosulfan pesticide on October 2, the International Day of Non Violence and the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

The use of endosulfan pesticide has killed hundreds of people and maimed and devastated the lives of thousands living in and around cashew nut plantations in the Kasargod district of the southern Indian state of Kerala.

Daya Bhai, who is in her 80s, sat on hunger strike in front of the Kerala state secretariat in the Kerala capital of Thiruvananthapuram. Around five of her supporters have also joined the protest.

They have demanded the federal government to consider building an All India Institute of Medical Science in Kasargod to provide medical treatment to the victims, for scientific research to assess the physical and mental deficiencies of the victims.

There is a proposal to build four such AIIMS in Kerala, including one in Kasargod, the state’s northernmost district.

Another demand is to set up daily care centers in all village panchayats and municipalities in the district to provide relief to those bed-ridden, physically and mentally handicapped because of endosulfan pesticide.

They also want the administration to organize regular medical camps to identify and treat those affected and resume the construction of a medical college in Kasargod where a foundation stone for the same was laid in 2013. A mother and child hospital was inaugurated, but it is not functioning.

The group also wants a hospital built for Covid patients to be changed into a neurospecialist hospital to treat those mentally affected because of the areal spraying of endosulfan.

Daya Bai and team have also demanded that the Kerala and Karnataka governments respect court verdicts and contracts signed by the Kerala government and pay monetary compensation to families whose members have died or those who have become handicapped due to endosulfan.

They want the administration to provide special school education to those who could not complete their studies because of the illness. Schools are refusing to admit such students.

The protest venue is a small narrow pedestrian path and the police administration has denied her permission to put up a plastic sheet above Daya Bai’s head to protect her from sunshine and rain.

The endosulfan tragedy struck Kasargod more than two decades ago with a series of deaths and , physical and mental illnesses on a mass scale in Kasargod and in adjoining areas in Karnataka.

The Karnataka government has implemented all the directions of the court.

A handbill distributed in the protest place, expressed the frustration and anger of the people of Kasargod against what they say are blatant human right violation by the Kerala government, its insensitivity, and cruel violation of the court orders.

Daya Bai, who has been part of the various social and environmental movements in various parts of India, has announced the satyagraha would be an indefinite fast.

In 1998-1999 she walked more 1,000 kilometers from Pokhran to Sarnath protesting against the then government’s experimental explosion of nuclear bomb in Pokhran in Rajasthan.

Daya Bai, originally named Mercy Mathew, left her home in Kerala’s Palai as a teenager to become a missionary nun in northern India. Touched by the poverty of the tribal people, she left the comforts of the convent to work for them.

She has worked among the deprived tribals and marginalized people of Chindwara and neighboring districts in the central Indian state Madhya Pradesh. She learnt the culture of the tribes and adopted their lifestyle in her attire, and food habits.

For standing for just wages of the tribal laborers, she has been threatened and physically persecuted many times by the landlords, police and politicians. Equipped with Masters in Social Work, degrees and diplomas in law, human rights, environmental rights she has received many national and international awards.

A Bollywood feature film on her life is ready and is awaiting release. She is also an accomplished theatre artiste and uses street plays as a medium to raise her dissenting voice against human rights violations.