CITU workers block medical help for Chengara Dalits *Pioneer News Service | Pathanamthitta* District medical authorities in Pathanamthitta said that they were unable to provide medical help to thousands of landless Dalits and Adivasis reeling under diseases like chicken pox, viral fevers and dysentery in the Chengara hills due to opposition from workers belonging to pro-CPI(M) CITU and other organisations.
District Medical Officer Dr Aishabai said the workers of the rubber estates of Harrison Malayalam Plantations had sent a medical team including doctors back from the estate warning them not to come back for providing medical aid to the Dalits and Adivasis. The workers, who were blocking the roads leading to the estate where the more than 7,000 Dalits and Adivasis were agitating for land and livelihood, asked the doctors to go back saying nobody would be allowed to enter the estate. With this the plan of the District Medical Office to hold a medical camp in the estate for the agitating people among whom the diseases were spreading in the context of the total blockade of the roads from August 3. The doctors had tried to reach the estate following media reports that diseases were spreading among the Dalits and Adivasis there. DMO sources said the police had not even tried to help the doctors to get into the estate. More than 7,000 people living in make-shift huts in the estate for the past one year were not getting food, water or medicines after their supply lines were cut off since August 3, the day the workers of the estate began the blockade demanding that the Adivasis and Dalits should vacate the estate so that they would get their jobs back. The workers had on August 13 formally declared that they were temporarily lifting the blockade to let the Adivasis vacate the estate but the siege is continuing for all practical purposes deteriorating the living and health conditions of the Dalits and Adivasis in the estate. With the landless agitators vowing not to vacate the place until their demands are met, the situation reached an explosive situation. The workers were forced to formally declare lifting of the blockade due to the resistance from local people who were complaining that they were also being harassed in the name of search on the agitators. The allegation that four Dalit women from the agitation camp were abducted and gang-raped by workers and goons employed by the plantation company had also pushed the workers on the defensive. However, they had warned that they would forcefully enter the estate if the agitators did not vacate the place by September 3. DMO Aishbai said the doctors who had gone to the estate to hold a medical camp to help the Dalits and Adivasis could not enter the place due to the workers' protests. She said the situation there was not conducive for the conduct of a medical camp. She said the district health authorities were ready to hold a medical camp at the earliest if the district administration was ready to provide police security, but no such guarantee had come forth so far. She also said that a mere promise would not be of any help as the opposition from the workers had already created a sense of insecurity in the minds of the doctors who had gone there. "We have to discuss the matter in detail," she said. According to reports, about 60 agitators had already contracted chicken pox while hundreds in the estate were down with various kinds of viral fever. Several people, especially children, had been hit by dysentery. The number of people getting infected was going up every day as there are no disease-prevention activities or medicines available due to the blockade. Several rights groups have already alleged that the workers, mainly belonging to the CITU, were acting against the agitators on behalf of the CPI(M), which wanted to defeat the agitation at any cost. The CPI(M) had, from the very beginning of the agitation, taken a stand that the Sadhu Jana Vimochana Smayuktha Vedi, which was spearheading the stir, was getting help from outside. CPI(M) leaders had also alleged that the agitators had links with certain extremist organisations. -- Dileep R I thuravoor --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth?hl=en-GB -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
