K.N. Phaneendra, who heads the State Legal Services Authority’s Committee that provides legal services to disabled persons, has directed the Udupi-based Human Rights Protection Foundation to submit an action plan to resolve problems faced by endosulfan victims from Dakshina Kannada, Uttara Kannada and Udupi districts in getting honorarium, treatment and other relief.
Mr. Phaneendra passed the direction following his recent virtual meeting with member-secretaries of the District Legal Services Authority and Deputy Commissioners of the three districts and endosulfan activists, including Ravindranath Shanbhag, who is the president of the foundation.
The meeting was convened by Mr. Phaneendra, a former High Court of Karnataka judge, following representations by endosulfan victims to the State Legal Services Authority.
During the meeting, Mr. Shanbhag submitted that the State government has failed to give monthly stipend to victims suffering from cancer, epilepsy, asthma and endrocrine disruptions. These victims are included in the category of those with less than 25% disability but they are not given monthly stipend. Of the 8,600 victims from 450 villages in the three districts, 2,000 victims fall in the less than 25% disability category and many among them are undergoing treatment for central nervous system disorders resulting from exposure to endosulfan. These victims are poor and they desperately need the assistance of the government, he said.
The State government was giving monthly stipend of ₹1,500 to victims with disability ranging between 25% and 60% and ₹3,000 to those whose disability was more than 60%.
Mr. Shanbhag expressed the need for permanent care centres for victims, especially those aged more than 30 and who have lost their parents, in the three districts.
Pointing to the inability of mobile clinics to provide physiotherapy to all bedridden victims, Mr. Shanbhag suggested installation of physiotherapy equipment in each one of the primary health centres that will cover six villages each in the district. He also spoke about the problems caused due to the closure of day care centres and also of irregular distribution of ration and medicine to the victims.
Mr. Shanbhag told The Hindu that he has planned to submit a report on this in another 15 days.
