Health, Human Rights & Development Activist Prisoner of Conscience in Chhattisgarh, 2007-08

Item

Title: Health, Human Rights &
Development Activist
Prisoner of Conscience
in Chhattisgarh, 2007-08
extracted text: RELEASE
DR. BINAYAK SEN !

Health, Human Rights &
Development Activist
Prisoner of Conscience
in Chhattisgarh, 2007-08

RELEASE
DR.BINAYAKSEN !

Dr. Binayak Sen - paediatrician, public health professional and
civil liberties activist - was arrested by the Chhattisgarh police on
14th May2007at Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh. Asked by the Superintendent
of Police to appear for recording a statement, he was placed under
arrest when he reached the police station. He is currently being held
in Raipur Central Jail under two draconian state and national laws the Chattisgarh Special Public Security Act 2005 (CSPSA) and the
Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) 2004. Since his arrest
there have been protests in various parts of the country, and a broad
range of organisations and persons in India and abroad have expressed
concern regarding Dr. Sen’s imprisonment. Given his outstanding role
as a public health professional and development activist in
Chhattisgarh, his arrest by the State government may have come as
a surprise to many. However, it seems that his related role as a human
rights activist and Vice-president ofPUCL, and his relentless exposure
of human rights violations in the state, could not be tolerated by the
State government, and hence the decision to imprison him. This
booklet attempts to address some of the questions raised by the
arrest of Dr. Binayak Sen, and suggests what health professionals
and socially concerned persons could do to press for the release of
this prisoner of conscience in our times.
Who is Dr. Binayak Sen? What are the allegations against
him which have resulted in such harsh and unjust treatment
from the Government?

Doctor and Public Health Activist
Binayak joined CMC as an undergraduate in 1966 and took
his MD in paediatrics. His thesis on ‘Marasmus and Malnutrition
in Children’ initiated a deep involvement in issues related to hunger,
malnutrition, poverty, mortality and morbidity.
Between 1976 and 1978 he taught at the Centre of Social
i

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Medicine and Community Health, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New
Delhi. Then, leaving academics, he joined a rural community health
project at the FRIENDS RURAL CENTRE in Hoshangabad, Madhya
Pradesh, where he focused on the problem of tuberculosis. In the
early 1980s he and his wife Ilina moved to southern Chhattisgarh
to work with the iron ore mine workers and their organisation based
in Dalli-Rajhara. They have now been living in Chhattisgarh for more
than a quarter century working in the areas of health, human rights
and sustainable development. Dr. Sen has particularly focused on
the provision of health care to the poorest and neediest sections
in Chhattisgarh.
In 2004 Binayak Sen was awarded the Paul Harrison Award
from the Christian Medical College, Vellore. It recognises ex
students of CMC for their outstanding contribution to society. The
citation describes him thus:
"Dr. Binayak Sen has been true to the spirit and vision of his
alma mater and has carried his dedication to truth and service to
the very frontline of battle. He has broken the mould and redefined
the possible role of the doctor in a broken and unjust society,
holding the cause more precious than personal safety. CMC is
proud to be associated with Binayak Sen and his wife Ilina. A role
model for the students and staff of CMC, he is someone who stands
out for his literal pursuit of the founding values of CMC."

Dr. Sen has made significant contributions in the public health
field in Chhattisgarh.
In 1981, Dr. Sen joined well-known trade union leader Shankar
Guha Niyogi at Dalli-Rajhara There he started working among the
iron ore mine workers and their trade union, the Chhattisgarh Mines
Shramik Sangh (CMSS) and their wider rural mass organisation,
the Chhattisgarh Mukti Morcha (CMM). He worked with the CMSS
to set up the Shaheed Hospital at Dalli, established in 1982. This
pioneering effort by workers to build and run their own hospital and
health programme for the benefit of common people has become a
model for provision of effective, low-cost, general and specialised
medical and surgical care for the poor. Dr. Sen was also a strong
supporter and advisor in other constructive programmes of the CMM.
From 1988 to 1992, Dr. Sen was based at the Mission Hospital,
Tilda, although his association with CMSS and CMM continued.
Following Niyogi's assassination in Bhilai in 1991 and a police
firing on a month-long peaceful workers' dharna there on 1st July
1992, a Bhilai Firing Relief Committee was set up. Dr. Sen managed
this Committee, running clinics among the urban industrial workers
and their communities in Bhilai and Birgaon for more than a decade.

In 1994. Ilina and Binayak Sen together set up a voluntary
organisation in Raipur named RUPANTAR. One aim was to extend
medical and health work into the neediest communities. To start a
community health programme. Binayak chose Bagrumnala, a
remote tribal village in Dhamtari District inhabited by people
displaced by a dam on the Mahanaoi river. The programme links
health work with the people's living conditions and includes provision
of low-cost effective health care services. Apart from running a
weekly clinic, Binayak selected and trained health workers from
among the local people. After initial on-site training, the health
workers’ skills have been enhanced by exposure at Shaheed
Hospital and at Jan Swasthya Sahayog, a voluntary community
health programme based at Ganiyari, Bilaspur. The health workers
are now able to manage the clinic at Bagrumnala, treating old
patients and referring those who need specialised care. This clinic
is widely recognised as a reliable and precious resource by people
of this area, which remains largely untouched by the public health
system.
Over time the clinic's reputation has grown among both, the
people and the health authorities, as a centre for low-cost effective
treatment of malaria and tuberculosis. In 2001 the health workers
identified 1000 cases of falciparum malaria and referred them for
treatment, averting a large number of fatalities. In Dhamtari block
the clinic is known as "TB ka dawakhana"'and Binayak as “TB ke
daktar”. According to the health workers, the local prevalence of
TB and malaria has significantly reduced. Despite a designated
DOTS centre in the government PHC, the local people opt for
treatment by the Rupantar team at Bagrumnala. During our visit
as members of Medico Friend Circle in June 2007, people told us
of how Binayak had himself carried unconscious persons to his
vehicle for transporting them to a hospital, and also how he had
borne the treatment costs of poor patients.
Dr. Binayak Sen is an esteemed member of the board of Jan
Swasthya Sahyog (JSS), Bilaspur, an effort aimed at finding
solutions to the vast unaddressed problems of rural health. Set up
in 1996, JSS is run by a group of young doctors from Al IMS, Delhi,
with a team of seventy full-time personnel. Theirs is a replicable
model of low-cost, rational and comprehensive medical and surgical
care, provided through a hospital, community health centre, and
rural outreach programme based in Ganiyari village of Bilaspur
District. It serves a largely tribal population confronted by extreme
poverty and hunger, aggravated by lop-sided development.
Over the last few years, Dr. Sen has been engaged in
monitoring the health and nutritional status in Chhattisgarh . He
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was associated with the State Health Resource Centre at Raipur.
He was also a member of the Advisory Committee set up by the
Chhattisgarh Government to pilot the Mitanin Programme, a
community-based health worker programme and fore-runner of the
ASHA programme of the National Rural Health Mission. He also
helped to draw up the list of essential drugs and guidelines for
standard treatment for the State Health Department as part of efforts
to promote rational use of drugs.
For over 30 years Binayak Sen has been a consistent and
active member of the Medico Friend Circle (MFC). MFC is an all
India group of socially conscious medical, public health and social
science professionals and researchers, as well as community
health and women's health rights activists, united by common
concerns about health status and health services in the country.
Through regular annual meetings and a bi-monthly bulletin. MFC
members debate and discuss critical health issues that arise
locally, regionally and nationally and work towards evolving solutions
suited to the needs of India's people. Like many others in MFC,
Binayak is associated with the Jan Swasthya Abhiyan, the Indian
chapter of the worldwide People's Health Movement, a coalition
working for people’s right to health and access to healthcare.

Human Rights and Development Activist
As the Harrison award citation states, Binayak has redefined
the possible role of a doctor in our "unjust, broken society". Over
the past three decades he has always extended his sphere of
work into what public health professionals, researchers, and health
workers now refer to as the “social determinants of health'' - what
we see in the larger social context as “human, rights". Moving
beyond medical service, Binayak has demonstrated how
medicine and public health can contribute to the broader
struggles for basic rights to food, health and education as well
as for democratic rights.
Reflecting on his ability to reach out, people at Bagrumnala
told us, "Doctor Binayak has done much more than just curative
work in this place. He has done manual labour with us during
construction of a pond." During a drought in 2001, initially he helped
organise emergency grain distribution, then he enabled the people
to set up a grain and seed bank called “Chaarjhaniya". He
connected this to a biodiversity conservation programme combining
the objectives of protecting traditional seeds and ensuring
community food sovereignty, both threatened with extinction by
unregulated growth of agro-industry. Adopting the model, the State
Government subsequently set up grain banks in 17 villages, and
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seed banks in 25 villages. Under Binayak's encouragement,
villagers have contributed from their wages to a local "Nirmaan
Samiti".
Binayak has engaged widely in debates on sustainable
development, including in the Socialist Front and in the National
Alliance of Peoples' Movements (NAPM). In 2001, he took an active
interest in organising the Desh Bachao - Desh Banao Yatra when
it passed through Chhattisgarh, and the Rozgar Guarantee Yatra
in 2004.
Over the last 15 years Binayak has worked for legal
entitlements of adivasis in the forests near Bagrumnala. When he
found the entire male population of village Piprahi Bharri, inhabited
by the primitive Kamaar tribe, jailed for ‘encroaching’ on forest
land, he arranged for their legal defense. On behalf of the people of
Kekrakholi, Futhamurha and other villages where land entitlements
were contested, he negotiated with officials.
Similarly, in Dugli village loans were sanctioned on paper to
many villagers by the lead bank and the money was shown as
given to them. It was part of a major fraud and no loans were actually
received by the villagers named as beneficiaries. When they got
recovery notices from the bank and were harassed by bank officials,
the villagers approached Binayak. Following his request to the
Reserve Bank at Nagpur to inquire into the matter, an inquiry team
was sent and the matter was resolved in the villagers' favour.
Binayak's civil rights activism dates from 1984, when he joined
the PUCL team that enquired into an incident of firing on textile
workers at Rajnandgaon near Dalli-Rajhara, in erstwhile Madhya
Pradesh. The People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) is a wellknown human rights organisation that has its origins in the complete
suspension of all fundamental rights during the emergency period
in the 1970s. The peaceful campaigns by the PUCL then helped to
turn the tide for the restoration of democracy. Since 1997-’98,
Binayak has been associated with the Chhattisgarh branch of
PUCL, and he has recently been elected General Secretary for
his second term. In 2002 he was elected Vice-President,
National PUCL and he continues in that office. Thus, as a key
office bearer, he has organised fact-finding investigations at
state level into human rights violations ranging from hunger
deaths and dysentery epidemics, to the welfare and rights of
under-trial prisoners, to custodial deaths and fake encounter
killings, and the findings have been announced in public fora.
According to PUCL, since 2005 the Chhattisgarh Government
has a growing record of "crimes against humanity”, using excessive
and unwarranted police power in the name of resolving the “naxalite
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problem". PUCL-Chhattisgarh and other democratic rights activists
have been raising their voices and campaigning against the “Salwa
Judum"and fake encounters in Chhattisgarh, of which there were
155 in 2005-’06. In May 2007, PUCL publicly demanded a CBI
enquiry into all extra-judicial killings in the state since 2005. One
instance is that of the supposed “encounter deaths" of 12 innocent
adivasi youth in Santoshpur village by the Chhattisgarh Police in
March 2007. After a sustained campaign by PUCL the state
Government was forced to order an investigation and only recently
charges have been filed against some of the involved policemen.
Similarly, PUCL has demanded an official investigation into killings
and other illegal acts by the so-called Salwa Judum movement in
Dantewada district with the connivance of the State Police, (see
box on Salwa Judum on inside back cover)
In a letter to the Chief Minister and at a meeting with him after
Dr. Sen’s arrest, the PUCL explained that as a human rights
worker and an active office-bearer of PUCL, Dr. Sen was duty
bound to bring to light the human rights violations of both
state and non-state actors. Contrary to the impression created by
the police, Dr. Sen had publicly raised the issue of human rights
violations by both the state and the naxalites, and had condemned
the killings caused by the Maoist violence. His concern throughout
has been for an end to such acts. He had appealed to both
Government and Maoists to find a political solution through
negotiations and dialogue with all those concerned, including
political parties, NGOs and naxalites. He had stressed that such
a process was overdue to find the way out of the tragic situation in
Chhattisgarh. PUCL has also been demanding the withdrawal of
the Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act (CSPSA) which was
shown to be liable to misuse by the police.
The Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act 2005 has been
shown to be unconstitutional and anti-democratic in nature. Various
political parties, peoples’ organisations, journalists’ associations
and both national and international human rights organisations have
pointed out the illegal and repressive features of this Act. Among
its arbitrary and dangerous features are the vague definitions of
“illegal" and “unlawful" activities and of so-called “support” to
organisations engaged in illegal activities. The definitions are such
that even peaceful forms of democratic protest and ordinary civil
disobedience can be brought under its purview and declared
“unlawful activity” and any protesting group can be declared
“unlawful". The Act also does not specify the need to establish
definite intention; hence even activities done unknowingly or
unintentionally can be punished. (For example, shopkeepers have
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been arrested on the accusation that they sold cloth to persons
who have been identified by the state as Maoists.) Apprehensions
are that, in using its discretion, the Government could misuse the
Act for settling scores with political opponents. In fact, the State
Government did ban some organisations under the CSPSA even
before the Advisory Board was constituted under the Act. Banning
of such innocuous organisations as the Adivasi Balak Sangh raised
doubts that even children below the age of 18 years in the tribaldominated areas would be arrested. Among those arrested since
the enactment of the law is a girl student of 12^ standard.
The Legal Case and the Trial
On 14th May 2007, Dr. Sen had just returned to Bilaspur from
a visit to his ailing mother in Kolkata. He was in the office of
Advocate Sudha Bharadwaj when they received a message from
the Bilaspur City SP asking him to go to the police station to
record a statement. Dr. Sen asked if he could do it the following
day, after returning from his weekly clinic in Bagrumnala. As this
request was turned down, he and his advocate went to the TarBahar
police station. The two were made to wait there for a long time.
Then he was abruptly told that the Raipur SP was arriving to place
him under arrest. A medical check-up was done, after which he
was given the option of getting hospitalised or going to jail, and he
chose the jail.
Dr. Sen was arrested under Sections 10(a)(1), 20, 21,38 and
39 of the UAPA, and Sections 2(b)(d) and 8(1 )(2)(5) of the CSPSA,
comprising the following charges:
Being a member of an unlawful association
Being a member of a terrorist gang or organisation
Holding the proceeds of a terrorist act
Giving support to a terrorist organisation, and
Aiding an unlawful organisation.
He has also been charged with sedition, conspiracy to wage
war against the state, and conspiracy to commit otner offences.
However, no evidence has been given in support of any of the
charges. More than a month after his arrest, despite having no
evidence, the police added charges under sections 120(B), 121(A)
and 124(A) of the IPC.
Arguments on the framing of charges against Binayak Sen
and others took place only on December 28 2007. The application
of defense for discharge on grounds of lack of evidence was rejected.
and all the charges of the prosecution have been retained.
According to the prosecution Dr Binayak acted as a courier for the
naxalites; however it could not produce any evidence to support
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this accusation.
The evidence that the police claim to have is the record of
various visits made by Dr. Sen to Mr. Narayan Sanyal, a 70-year
old undertrial in Raipur Central Jail and a senior leader of the
Communist Party of India (Maoist).. Mr. Sanyal sought to bring to
the notice of the jail authorities, as well as the national and state
human rights commissions and several human rights groups, his
health condition and his desire to get legal aid as his right under
the laws. In his capacity as a PUCL member, Dr. Sen met Mr.
Sanyal in jail to provide him with both medical and legal assistance.
As a civil liberties activist it was his legitimate task to meet
detainees and ensure that their fundamental rights are respected
and that the due process of law is being observed. These visits by
Dr. Sen were in the due process of law and in the presence of the
ail authorities, as provided for in the Jail Manual. He was searched
at the point of entty both before and after the visits.
The police have confiscated what they claim to be
"incriminating documents" from Dr. Sen’s residence. The CPU of
their computer was seized and sent for forensic examination to
Hyderabad. Aside from newspaper clippings, the confiscated
materials include five CDs containing interviews pertaining to PUCL
investigations on fake encounters, which have been distributed by
the PUCL in the last two years. There is a post-card from Narayan
Sanyal dated 3rc* June 2006 regarding his health as well as his
legal case, duly signed by jail authorities and carrying their seal.
There is another letter from a prisoner, a member of the Communist
Party of India-Maoist, about the inhuman conditions and illegal
activities in Raipur Central Jail, which was subsequently sent to
newspapers and electronic media by the PUCL and prominently
published in some newspapers. Additionally, there is a copy of an
article subsequently published in the Economic and Political
Weekly, a CPI (Maoist) document on recent police activities and
labourers, a book by the Committee of Tribals affected by the Salwa
Judum and an article on ‘Globalisation and the Service Sector in
India’.
The court proceedings to hear Dr. Sen’s bail application have
seen delay after delay. In the High court the bail application travelled
from one bench to another, as the concerned judges said that they
were members of an advisory committee constituted under the
CSPSA to review the banning of specific organisations. For several
hearings in the District Sessions court at Raipur where Dr Sen is
to be tried, he was not produced in court on the pretext of security
concerns. While rejecting his bail plea on July 23rci, the High Court
relied solely on the allegations of the prosecution, all of which
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associate Binayak with unlawful organisations and individuals only
by implication, and failed to give adequate consideration to the
defense arguments. On July 31st, at the first Supreme Court
hearing on the special leave petition to consider bail, the two-judge
bench ordered a notice to be sent to the Chhattisgarh Government
in this matter. The response to this notice was obtained only in
December, after four-and-a-half months. Following that on
December 10^ the Supreme Court dismissed the special leave
petition for consideration of bail in a one line order, without naming
any reasons.
■ At the baii hearings in the High Court Dr. Sen’s counsel
pointed out that Mr. Sanyal, whose messages Dr. Sen is alleged
to have carried out of the jail, was charged under the CSPSA and
UAPA only after having been in police custody for 15 months, on
19lh June 2007. That, too, only after Dr. Sen's bail application had
been filed in the High Court. Until the 18th of June Mr. Sanyal had
not been declared a member of an organisation banned under the
CSPSA.
■ Raipur Central Jail, where Dr. Sen is incarcerated, is hardly
a kilometer from the District Sessions Court. Yet, on several
occasions the jail authorities have refused to produce him in court
on the pretext of insufficient “security". In lieu of personal
appearances they arranged for video-conferencing. Thereby, Dr.
Sen was denied his right to be present and heard at the trial court.
Instead he was kept in an intimidating situation in a prison room
under heavy guard and without the presence of his lawyers, family
and friends. He was shown only the face of the judge and could
not even see his lawyer. At least on this matter, however, the Court
has now clarified that it has passed no such orders, and that at
the times of framing of charges, examination of evidence and cross
examination of witnesses, it would ensure that the accused is
physically present and personally heard.
■ At the hearing of the court on 28th December 2007, he was
brought to court to hear the framing of charges. However his
application for parole to receive the Keithan gold medal awarded to
him in December 2007 by the Indian Academy of Social Sciences
was also rejected on technical grounds.
■ At the time of the arrest in May, the police seized the CPU
of Dr. Sen’s computer from his house and sent it for analysis to
CFSL, Hyderabad. The Prosecution failed to hand over a DVD of
the CPU as evidence in the trial court, or to the defense, on the
grounds that it was an “article" (property) and not a “document".
The counsels of Dr. Binayak argued that computer evidence is
treated as document and the accused was entitled to a copy of it.
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Thereupon the Additional District Judge ordered the prosecution to
hand over the DVD, and subsequently it was submitted to the court
Only in early December was it given to Dr. Sen’s family. In addition,
the prosecution engaged in such a way that the independent witness
ordered by the court to be present during the examination of the
CPU at Hyderabad was prevented from being there. The
circumstances whereby the examination was manipulated in order
to exclude the witness have been intimated to the court. After all
this, the government has failed to find any 'incriminating' material
in the CPU.
■ In Raipur Central Jail, Dr. Sen is kept in a barrack along
with some other prisoners. He suffers from several serious ailments
(hypertension, gout, and angina) and in over eight months of
detention he has lost 7 kilograms. His application for urgent
attention to his medical condition was noted by the court on 28th
December, asking for his health records to be sent from the jail. In
the Sessions court hearing on January 171*1 the jail authorities
filed an unsubstantiated medical report with a long list of dates on
which Binayak was medically examined, claiming that he was of
ideal weight for his height and age.
■ The central jail authorities have classified Dr. Sen as a
“hardcore naxalite criminal” even before the police investigations
were over and the charge sheet filed, leave alone a trial having
taken place. Letters from the Jail Superintendent to the district
Police authorities for security to escort him to court for extension
of remand refer to him to in these terms. Family members visiting
Dr. Sen are made to sign in a special register pertaining to naxalite
prisoners.
□ Even prior to Dr. Sen’s arrest on May 15th, a vicious media
campaign was mounted against him. Later that month a similar
campaign was launched against his wife Prof. Ilina Sen alleging
that her relationships are suspicious and stating that her activities
would be investigated. A Police Special Investigating Team visited
Ilina's mother’s home in Kolkata, enquiring about her antecedents
and why the couple had chosen to work in Chhattisgarh. Such
police intrusion violates the fundamental liberties of Indian citizens
guaranteed by our Constitution to live and work in any part of India
as well as to hold dissenting political positions.

The Build-up to the Arrest
PUCL-Chhattisgarh had apprehensions about repressive
action against human rights activists raising such civil liberties
issues, as the state police officials and Ministers had threatened
to use CSPSA against the PUCL activists. Since early May in

press briefings the police had specifically named several
people, including Dr. Sen. Democratic rights organisations at
national level, such as PUCL and PUDR (People's Union for
Democratic Rights), had been expressing concern over harassment
and threats by the Superintendent of Police, Raipur, to activists of
PUCL and other social activists in the state. In a combined press
statement they said.
"The PUCL-CG and other democratic rights activists have
been raising their voices and campaigning against these illegal
and inhuman practices of the State Government. For this service
to democracy the familiar allegation of being ‘Maoist' is made
against them."
So what is Dr. Binayak Sen’s '‘Crime”?
Thus, it seems that Dr. Sen’s ’‘crime" - or contribution consists of the selfless, fearless and uncompromising pursuit of
truth and dedication to his work. This he was carrying out not just
through clinical practice but also by pursuing an alternative public
health approach, by working as a civil liberties activist to uphold
the constitutional commitments of the Government towards its
citizens, and by speaking up for justice and dignity of the
marginalised and the impoverished. Binayak is what the renowned
19**1 century physician, pathologist and public health pioneer Rudolf
Virchow would have described as a “natural advocate for the poor".
His activities through CMSS and CMM, through RUPANTAR, PUCL,
JSS, etc., indicate his commitment to constructive, and open,
democratic forms of political action and engagement.
The R.R. Keithan Gold Medal, awarded to Dr. Sen in absentia
at Mumbai on 29*^ December 2007 highlights this in its citation:
"The Academy recognises the resonance between the work
of Dr. Binayak Sen in all its aspects with the values promoted by
the Father of the Nation. ”
To those who are able to visit Binayak in jail, he makes the
mission clear:
“We must not personalise the issue of my arrest, but focus
on the wider issues for which I was arrested. ”
These issues are: the worsening of human development
indices for the majority, the deepening social and economic
disparities, the erosion of nutritional security and sovereignty, and
the impact on public health of corporate-led industrialisation and
increasing militarisation.
The arrest of Binayak Sen needs to be viewed in the
background of the kind of development that has been going
on in India for over a decade now. The pursuit of neo-liberal
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policies has, among other things, led to large-scale land acquisition
for mining, industrial growth and special economic zones, and to
promotion of corporate capital. These have in turn led to disruption
of livelihoods, displacement of large sections of the population and
loss of forest cover, especially in the tribal regions of central India.
The tribal districts of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa, Karnataka
and Maharasthra are the destination of some US $ 85 bn of promised
investments, mostly in steel and iron plants, and mining projects.
In Chhattisgarh itself 9,620 acres of land is already under process
of acquisition. There are plans by many big companies for new or
expanded steel and aluminium plants in the state. For instance:
Essar Steel is acquiring 900 ha, and the Tatas 4500 acres for their
steel plants in Dantewara. Any questioning of these policies,
and resistance by local people to the land-acquisition is being
labeled by the government as being ‘anti-national', or 'anti
development' or as being a 'naxalite'. Many of these protests
are being put down by the state by use of force.
Binayak Sen, through his activities as public health worker
was not only raising questions about such 'development'. As a
civil liberties activist within Chhattisgarh he was also highlighting
and leading the campaign against the violence against its own
citizens by the state in the form of hunger deaths, custodial deaths,
fake encounters, destruction of democratic institutions like gram
sabhas, etc, and against the repressive measures adopted by the
state in these 'development processes’, and in putting down dissent
to its policies. These are the “crimes” for which the government
has therefore chosen to malign him through media, and arrested
him in an attempt to silence his voice, as also that of all others
questioning and resisting the official policies.
As pointed out by the PUCL, the choice to not to use wellestablished ordinary laws of the land, like the Indian Penal
Code and Criminal Procedure Code, and instead to detain Dr.
Binayak Sen under the repressive CSPSA and UAPA laws
demonstrates an inherent bias and political motivation.
We also see that after his arrest he is also being denied
several basic rights due to him as an under trial prisoner (as is
happening to other prisoners), and there is substantial delay in
the legal proceedings.
The treatment and arrest of Binayak is an indictment of
all human endeavours to heal, and to work for a just.
egalitarian, peaceful society, fora better nation. Imposition
of charges such as sedition against such human rights activists
is also a grave threat to freedom and democracy.
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What concerns emerge from this account for doctors and public
health professionals?
# The arrest of Dr. Binayak Sen is a test case for the present
Government at both state and national level. On the one hand, the
Government has initiated such constructive programmes as the
National Rural Health Mission through which it aims to provide
equitable, accessible and quality health services and achieve some
of the Millennium Development Goals. On the other hand,
committed public health workers and activists such as Binayak
are harassed and victimised. This raises questions about the
Government’s seriousness about improving the status of health
and healthcare services for the rural poor. It laments the lack of
committed doctors and other health professionals willing to work
in rural areas and for the poor, but by persecuting those who are
working in such situations what message does the Government
send out to young health professionals?
# Today clinicians are increasingly faced with the direct effects
of a dehumanising and marginalising neo-liberal market. The
present paradigm of development rests upon and engenders a
pattern of ‘structural’ violence against the poor and marginalised.
All over the world over such forces are increasing inequalities.
Chattisgarh, in terms of natural resources one of the richest states
in India, is among the states with the worst health indices.
Dedicated and rare physicians like Binayak Sen recognise and
question such policies and strive to push for a difference in the
scenario.
# Any professional who takes up public health work today
has to understand and grasp the impact of the neo-liberal economic
policies and the importance of human rights and constitutional
entitlements for the health and wellbeing of the poor. Will she or
he take up this challenge and tackle the social determinants of
health? Or, take the softer path of serving merely as a clinician in
the already over-served urban areas?
What emerges is that all physicians who look at the social
aspects of health must reach beyond the sphere of clinical medicine,
and maybe harassed by the state for doing so.
As a concerned and responsible citizen and a public health
professional, we hope that you will join us in standing up for Dr. Binayak
Sen and all that he represents in contemporary India, a land of increasing
inequalities and disparities in every sphere including in health and
healthcare.

14

What can we do? How can we participate and support?
Social activists and health professionals from across the country,
including many graduates from Dr. Sen’s alma mater CMC Vellore,
have condemned his arrest. More than 2000 persons from India and
across the globe have endorsed a petition highlighting the importance
of his work and asking for his release. This has been submitted to the
Chief Minister and other concerned authorities. (See these websites:
www.freebinayaksen.org,www.pucl.org,www.pudr.org).
Public meetings have been held in various parts of the country to
discuss these issues. On 31st May 2007, the first public meeting was
attended by about 700 people at Raipur, including groups and individuals
from different organisations and institutions, such as CMC Vellore,
PUCL units from several states, local organisations including CMM,
several women’s organisations. Narmada Bachao Andolan and
university students and teachers. Parallel rallies and public meetings
were held in Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Lucknow and
Jaipur. After the rally a delegation comprising doctors and PUCL
members met the Chief Secretary, Chhattisgarh, to discuss and
apprise him of Dr.Binayak Sen’s work and the issues he was raising.
The Medico Friend Circle has also organised four press conferences
in Chhattisgarh in the past six months, at Raipur and Bilaspur.

What more can we do?
• Get well acquainted with the issues involved, including the case
against Binayak, his decades-long constructive work in Chhattisgarh,
his findings as a civil liberties activist and the gravity of arresting such
committed doctors.
• Create forums for wide involvement of health professionals, not
only in the issue of his release from detention, but also in the issues
that he was raising and working on.
• Discuss how the crisis in Chhattisgarh is affecting the health of
the people there, and the role of a medical doctor in situations of civil
strife with encounter killings, torture and custodial deaths, and the
broad violation of civil rights of citizens.
• Work to focus and sustain public attention among the media
and Government on these issues. Write articles for newspapers and
magazines in local and national languages.
• Write to professional bodies and medical journals about Dr.
Sen’s arrest, highlighting issues of human rights violations as an
issue, which needs to be supported by the medical community.
• Organise local meetings to sensitise public, medical
professionals and media.
• Support and sustain Dr. Sen's clinic at Bagrumnala in Dhamtari
Block by devoting time to help run the clinic or with monetary support
15

for medicines etc.
• Raise financial support for a long drawn-out legal struggle.
If you want to chip in draw a cheque in the name of Binayak
Sen Support Fund, SBI A/c. No.30181020786’.
You may drop this cheque in any of the Core Bank Branches of
SBI in your town or send it to the registered office of Medico Friend
Circle in Pune.
• Continue getting new people to add their names to the ongoing
online petition. You can find it on: http:// home.cmcvellore.ac.in / petition
/ petitionpage1.html.
• Make frequent, planned, co-ordinated visits individually or in
groups to Raipur, particularly coinciding with the court proceedings, to
express solidarity, support and concern.
• Network with other organisations that are striving towards
securing Dr. Sen's release
• Send a solidarity message to Dr. Sen on a reply-paid postcard
in English or Hindi at this address: Dr. Binayak Sen Raipur Central
Jail. Raipur 492001 Chhattisgarh.
(Please note that letters will be read by the jail authorities.)

For further information you may contact MFC through one of
the members who have contributed to this pamphlet- Indira Chakravartni, New Delhi, indirachakravarthi@yahoo.com
- Rakhal Gaitonde, Chennai 9940246089, subharakhal@gmail.com
- Abhay Shukla. Pune 020-25465936, abhayseema@vsnl.com
- or the registered office of MFC - C/o.Manisha Gupte,
manishagupte@gmail.com
- or Prabir Chatterjee - 094 333 10060. prabirkc@yahoo.com

I6

Targetting Human Rights Activists
In a public statement immediately preceding his arrest
on 14th May, Dr. Binayak Sen declared “For the past several years we are seeing all over India.
and as pad of that in the State of Chhattisgarh as well, a
conceded programme to expropriate from the poorest people in
the Indian nation, their access to essentials, common propedy
resources and to natural resources including land and water...
The campaign called the Salwa Judoom in Chhattisgarh is a
pad of this process in which hundreds of villages have been
denuded of the people living in them, and hundreds of people men and women - have been killed. Government-armed vigilantes
have been deployed and the people who have been protesting
against such moves and trying to bring before the world the
reality of these campaigns. Human rights workers like myself
have also been targeted through state action against them. At
the present moment the workers of the Chhattisgarh PUCL
(People's Union for Civil Libedies) the Chhattisgarh branch of
which I am General Secretary have padicularly become the target
of such state action. I and several of my colleagues are being
targeted by the Chhattisgarh state in the form of punitive action
and illegal imprisonment. These measures are being taken
especially under the aegis of the Chhattisgarh State Public
Security Act (CSPSA)."

Where is the incriminating evidence?

During the framing of charges in the Sessions Court at
Raipur, the prosecution lawyer himself admitted that he has no
evidence of Dr. Binayak Sen being a naxalite. He however
claimed that Dr. Sen is their sympathiser who acted as courier
to pass information amongst the naxalites, the prosecution could
not provide any credible evidence to suppod even this charge.
Letters produced by the police supposedly written by Sanyal
also contain no evidence of collaborating with the naxalites.
The prosecution claims that these contain code language, but
then where is the decoded version ? Despite spending Rs.80.000
to get printouts of matter in the hard disk of Dr. Sen s computer.
the Government of Chhattisgarh has not come up with any
incriminating material
17

The Fake Encounter Killings at Santoshpur,
March 2007
Upon orders from the State Human Rights Commission,
the bodies of the victims were exhumed from a mass grave in
the week immediately preceding Dr. Sen's arrest. The Director
General of Police in Chhattisgarh also ordered a police probe
into the incident on 5 May 2007. According to a police official
monitoring the investigation, autopsy reports confirmed that
three of the victims were hit by bullets at close range on the
head and waist while others were axed to death. This account
was corroborated by a videotaped interview with the Santoshpur
sarpanch.

Appeal by Ilina Sen
As many of you may know, on December 10, 2007 the
Supreme Court of India rejected the special leave petition of
Binayak Sen to consider grant of bail. Ironically it was
International Human Rights Day, dedicated this year to
defenders of Human Rights. This rejection has been a great
disappointment. It comes at a point when the trial is about to
begin in Raipur, and we need to garner our forces for the case
to ensure that Binayak has the best legal defense. It also
means that all of us have to work much harder in making
known the context and significance of Binayak's quarter
century of constructive and non-violent work. He was simply
struggling to make a difference in an unjust social system. I
would like to appeal to all friends and believers in the values
of equity and democracy to rally round in solidarity and support
at this time of crisis. Apart from physical and material
resources, we also need volunteers to help with the day to day
nitty-gritty of the case. We need all your support and solidarity
in every way. I am sure that together we will emerge victorious
in the end.

18

Excerpts from an Appeal by Binayak Sen’s mother
By Anasuya Sen
1 am a woman in my eighties. When we were young, people
were inspired by the examples of karmayogis who were patriotic,
motivated by ideals of service, wise and virtuous. We considered
ourselves blessed if we could follow in their footsteps. I have so
far been a silent spectator to the injustice and violence that
pervades our free democracy today ------------- .now, as an aged
mother and outraged by the blows of injustice, I wish to break my
silence. Inconsolable in my pain at the age of eighty-one years. I
now wish to make a humble appeal to the people of free, democratic
India.-------- ------- In the course of his medical work among the
poor and the oppressed, which was already occupying all his
time, he became aware of the abuses of the state towards the
poor adivasis of Bastar district, and protested against the state
sponsored Salwa Judum movement that pitted adivasis against
one other. The state did not take kindly towards his protestations
on their behalf.
- The patriot who had devoted his entire
professional life to the untiring service of the poor, a record
acknowledged by the Paul Harrison Award bestowed on him by
his alma mater, that very person was now in jail charged with
being a terrorist waging war against the state.
Here,
without casting any doubts or aspersions on anyone’s integrity, I
humbly wish to pose my question to all the people and revered
leaders of free, democratic India: SHOULD I REGARD AS
JUSTICE the refusal of bail to one who even as a child was moved
by injustice, who having devoted his entire working life selflessly
to providing food and health to the poor, who without coveting
wealth survived for days on dal, rice and green chillies, who is
accustomed to living like the poor, who dedicated his life to serving
the people of his country, and who is now arraigned for breach of
public security and waging war against the state? —My simple question to all compassionate readers of this appeal
is: How much longer to that day when Dr. Binayak Sen will receive
justice?I ask this question not just for myself and for
my son, but also on behalf of all mothers suffering from the injustice
meted out to their children. Is justice so elusive in our free,
democratic country?

I1)

SALWAJUDUM
Since June 2005 the Chhattisgarh government, with support
from the Home Ministry, has been carrying on a counter
insurgency operation, called Salwa Judum, against the naxalites
in Dantewada district. According to the government it was a
spontaneous, peaceful campaign by the local people against
the Maoists. The district administration claims that it is sheltering
the people in relief camps, as they are deserting their villages in
the forests because of Maoist violence. However, reports by
several fact-finding teams have established that far from being a
peaceful campaign, there was eviction of villagers and their re
location to camps, by members of salwa judum accompanied
by security personnel, and this was achieved by threat, coercion,
violence, killings, looting and burning of villages, and sexual
violence against women. It has been also established that the
salwa judum is being actively supported by the state government,
which gives military and weapons training to salwa judum
members, as part of an official plan to create a civil vigilante
structure to fight the naxalites. At least a lakh people have been
displaced thus, and lives of many more completely disrupted. A
preliminary visit to Dantewada by some members of MFC in
June 2007 showed that life in the salwa judum relief camps is
miserable, and pervaded by severe restrictions on movement,
food and livelihood insecurity, and constant threat of violence
and terror due to continuous presence of armed salwa judum
members and security men. An equally serious fact is that
people who have not come to the camps, and continue living in
villages are all deemed ‘Maoists' and are not being provided
ration and health facilities at all for more than two years. A large
number of people are thus being denied their basic rights. For
the detailed reports see: www.pudr.org, http://
cpic.wordpress.com; www.phm-india.org.

20

Medico Friend Circle
The Medico Friend Circle (mfc) is a nation-wide platform
of secular, pluralist, and pro-people, pro-poor health
practitioners, scientists and social activists interested in the
health problems of the people of India. It is a loosely knit group
of friends from various backgrounds, medical and non-medical,
often differing in their ways of thinking and in their modes of
action. But the understanding that our present health service
as well as the system of medical education is lopsided and is
in the interest of a privileged few prevails as a common
conviction. Since its inception in 1974, mfc has critically
analyzed the existing health care system and has tried to evolve
appropriate approaches towards health and health care which
is humane and which can meet the needs of the vast majority
of the people in our country.
The mfc bulletin (first published in 1975) has been the
main medium through which we communicate experiences,
ideas and information and stay in touch with each other. It
carries articles which usually represent varying points of view
of our membership within the broad mfc perspective.
MFC Annual Meets usually focus upon a particular theme
or issue ranging from the role of doctors in society, to under
nutrition, to community health workers, to bias against women
in medical care, to right to health care, quality of health care,

public health education.

For more information see http://www.mfcindia.org

Medico Friend Circle’s Appeal Join hands in the campaign for reiease
of Dr. Binayak Sen paediatrician, public health and human
rights activist,
prisoner of conscience
Medico Friend Circle (MFC) is a nationwide network of
health professionals and health activists working since
1974 towards pro-people apropriate approaches towards
health and healthcare

Contributory price Rs. 10/(Proceeds will go to Binayak Sen support fund)

Published by Manisha Gupte for Medico Friend Circle
Reg. Address:- 11 Archana Apartments, 163 Solapur Road.
Hadapsar, Pune - 411 028
Printed at: S.K. Printers, Pune-30.

Media: 10412.pdf

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