Noted healthcare worker and activist Dr Binayak Sen, who has been in jail for a year on charges of supporting a banned Maoist party in Chhattisgarh, has been awarded the Global Health Council’s 2008 Jonathan Mann Award for Global Health and Human Rights

Dr Binayak Sen, who has worked for over 30 years to bring healthcare to Chhattisgarh’s tribal population, has been awarded the 2008 Jonathan Mann Award for Global Health and Human Rights, by the Global Health Council.

The award is presented every year to a leading practitioner in health and human rights by the Global Health Council (www.globalhealth.org), the world’s largest membership alliance of public health organisations and professionals working to improve healthcare and save lives among the poor. This is the first time since the award was instituted nine years ago that someone in India has got it.

Dr Sen, however, may not be able to receive the award in person as, for the past 12 months he has been incarcerated without trial in Raipur central jail in Chhattisgarh. The government suspects him of being a supporter of a banned Maoist party. When he is brought to trial, it will be under the Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act.

Dr Sen founded a hospital in the mining town of Dalli Rajhara, along with trade union leader Shankar Guha Niyogi, to provide accessible and rational healthcare to people in the region. For the past 15 years, he has worked in a remote tribal area treating those afflicted with chronic malnutrition, endemic malaria and other infectious diseases. He has also worked on issues of food and livelihood security and greatly influenced the state’s health worker programme called the ‘Mitanin model’. Dr Sen was asked to be part of the process of planning for the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) and was responsible for the training of Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs).

As general secretary of the state unit of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), as well as national vice-president of the organisation, he has been a vociferous critic of police excesses carried out by the state administration. He has also been critical of the Salwa Judum, a state-sponsored vigilante initiative to counter Maoist groups. It was his expose of human rights abuses that have occurred under this programme that allegedly led to his arrest on what his supporters call “trumped-up charges”. 

Dr Sen has earlier received the Paul Harrison Award from his alma mater Christian Medical College, Vellore, for his contribution to “redefining healthcare in a broken society”, and the R R Keithan Gold Medal from the Indian Academy of Social Sciences for “a fresh and radical interpretation of Gandhiji’s core concerns”.

In a letter to the President of India, the prime minister and the chief minister of Chhattisgarh, D Nils Dulaire (president and chief executive officer of the Global Health Council), wrote: ‘Dr Sen was selected for this honour by an international jury of public health experts on the basis of his years of service in poor and tribal communities in India, his effective leadership in establishing self-sustaining healthcare services where none existed, and his unwavering commitment to civil liberties and human rights. His long history of selfless service and this award’s recognition are commendations that we hope will be celebrated by India’s leaders and citizens.’

Dr Sen’s year-long imprisonment has been strongly opposed by citizens and human rights activists in India and abroad. On August 31, 2007, the Supreme Court of India issued notice to the Chhattisgarh government on a petition seeking Dr Sen’s release. The bench sought a response from the Chhattisgarh government after senior counsel Soli Sorabjee claimed that Dr Sen had been illegally detained since May 14 on fabricated charges of supporting Naxalites. A signature campaign has now been started to allow Dr Sen to attend the awards ceremony in Washington in May.

Source: www.globalhealth.org, April 23, 2008
              www.business-standard.com, April 23, 2008