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Dr Binayak Sen receiving “Paul Harrison Award”
from
Dr Sheetalvad at CMC, Vellore, 2004
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May 14, 2007: Dr. Binayak Sen Arrested in
Chhattisgarh Under Public Security Act
What was Binayak Sen doing in Chhattisgarh?
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• 1983: Inaugurated - 10 beds in Dalli Rajahara
mining area.
• Supported by workers: no charitable funds or
grants.
• Doctors lived among the mineworkers.
• 2004: Shaheed Hospital- 90 beds, OR, pharmacy
(& staff quarters).
• Open to ALL within a 100 km radius
• Later, satellites in other areas Bhilai,
Kumhari, Urla
• Rupantar: 1989: NGO started in Raipur: Nagri
Sihawa Block.
• People displaced by dam-building in the upper
Mahanadi catchment area.
• Previous health services practically
non-existent.
• Rupantar allied with existing organizations. |
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What Was He Doing There?
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• Building hospitals still being successfully
run by mine & factory workers.
• Training people in villages to look after the
health of their own communities.
• Running free clinics in areas where medical
facilities are not available.
• Defending the rights of citizens.
• Urging the state to observe its own legal
obligations to grant habeas corpus.
• Ensuring proper treatment of under-trial
prisoners.… |
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Why should doctors get mixed up in all this
political stuff?
• “One of the noblest attributes of our
profession is practical humanity towards the
poor. The medical man is often, in truth, the
natural defender of the poor and needy against
oppressive laws…”
Anonymous. The Lancet, 1850, i: 23
• “Promotion and protection of health are
inextricably linked to promotion and protection
of human rights and dignity.”
Mann J et al, Health and Human Rights, 1994: 1
(1): 7-23
• “…when the ‘rights and dignity’ of people are
undermined there is frequently an implication
for the health of the community and
responsibilities for its health workers.”
Kandela PK. The Lancet, 1998: 175 (352):
sii7-sii11
Doctors, interrogation, and torture - Luis
Justo
Medical associations’ statements on human rights
are welcome, but we all need to do more to
prevent abuses. It is our duty as doctors to
reject any attempt to bend our ethical aim to do
no harm and to alleviate suffering. We should
also actively resist any attempt, however
powerful, to corrupt the idea of human
dignity.(BMJ 2006;332;1462-1463)
Can action on health
achieve political and social reform?
Naturally, health professionals are expected to
have a central role in promoting reform through
actions to improve health. By engaging the
public, civil institutions, opposition
politicians, and even government agencies in
discussions and projects, health professionals
will be able to highlight the social and
political determinants of health.
(Samer Jabbour, Abbas El-Zein, Iman Nuwayhid,
and Rita Giacaman In BMJ 2006; 333: 837-839 )
BMJ 9 June 2007Vol 334, No 7605 p p 1184-1185
Indian doctor held under controversial
antiterrorism law
Owen Dyer (London)
Binayak Sen, a noted civil rights activist, was
arrested on 14 May .....
Dr Sen worked on behalf of indigenous
communities for 30 years. He helped to found a
cooperative hospital for mine workers, the
Shaheed hospital, and played a big part in
evolving a statewide programme of training
community health workers. (BMJ 2007, 9 June
2007, Vol 334, No 7605, p 1184-1185)
“First They Came”
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First they came for the
Communists.
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a
Communist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew.
Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn’t speak up because I was a
Protestant.
Then they came for me,
and by that time there was nobody left to speak
up. |
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- Pastor Martin Niemoller, 1892-1984 |
