Winged Naxals

EAR TO THE GROUND

The government of Chhattisgarh has a gun in hand to deal with Naxals, but it has not thought it necessary to fight the equally menacing mosquitoes..

When you are in the streets of Raipur, the capital of Naxal country Chhattisgarh, you are more likely to be concerned about the mosquitoes swarming all over you than about the Naxals breeding in the jungles of Bastar not far away.

Chhattisgarh's good doctor, Binayak Sen, who spent his life treating cerebral malaria cases in the countryside, has been behind the bars for nearly eight months. Sen is accused of providing logistic support to the Naxals.

The doctor is currently braving much worse in the Raipur central jail than charges of Naxalism "" armies of mosquitoes, the very kind he had been fighting in the rural health clinics he had set up in Chhattisgarh years ago.

Every month he used to get 1,000 cerebral malaria cases, says an associate who now works for Jan Swasthya Sahyog, a group of doctors from all over the country who, following Sen's footsteps, have been working in villages of Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh.

On the way to the hotel in Raipur, taxi driver Aslam curses the government for not doing anything about the mosquitoes. He rarely curses the government about not doing anything about Naxals.

As the cab moves by the central jail, he informs: "The jail is even worse than the roads. It is full of mosquitoes. The convicts would die of malaria before they ever come out."

And then his verdict for the present government follows: "This government will be voted back to power. They will rig the elections. Last elections were also rigged. All the votes from Bastar where there was no one left to vote went to this government..."

The open drains all around Raipur reflect how the government, which is seemingly sharpening its nails to tackle Naxals, has almost laid down its arms when it comes to as serious a threat to the lives of the people: mosquitoes.

The pests are the tip of two problems. One is that of malaria. While Orissa contributes 25 per cent of all malaria cases, Chhattisgarh is second with 13 per cent. The other problem states are West Bengal with 11 per cent and Jharkhand with 7 per cent.

These are figures provided by the National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme. The country itself reports about two million cases a year with 1,000 deaths, according to the government figures. World Health Organisation paints a more horrifying picture of 20,000 deaths a year with incidence as high as 15 million.

Malaria, especially the P Faciparum, is one of the reasons for many of India's chronic health problems, including low birth weight babies, maternal mortality and anaemia in 80 per cent of the population.

A study conducted by the National Institute of Malaria Research, Delhi, in 2007 says that every rupee spent by the National Malaria Control Programme to fight mosquitoes pays a rich dividend of Rs 19.7. It does not mention the consequences of not fighting mosquitoes.

The other problem that the mosquitoes of Raipur point at is the neglect of the well-being of the people.

Mosquitoes and Naxals are two sides of the same coin. The government of Chhattisgarh has a gun in hand to deal with the latter, but it has not thought it necessary to deal with the former. It thinks it can afford to be casual about the fact that hundreds of villages termed as Naxal-affected can be left without any government facility for years together. That people can reside beside open sewage drains...

The mosquitoes continue to breed. And they breed germs of disease as well as discontent all along the Naxal/malaria belt of the country, which seem to coincide. The earlier the rulers paid heed to the sting of the winged creatures, the better.