US award for doc-activist accused of Maoist links

STATE OF REBELLION: Sen a critic of Salwa Judum, an armed civilian force created to fight Maoists.

Featured Blog

Rajdeep Sardesai

Maharaj or Dada, Ganguly's legacy lives on

Featured Slideshows

Vellore: Physician and rights activist Binayak Sen, who is behind bars in Chhattisgarh for alleged links with Maoists, has been awarded the prestigious Jonathan Mann Award for Global Health and Human Rights.

The Washington-based Global Health Council Monday awarded the 2008 award to Sen, who was arrested in May 2007. He is vice president of the human rights body People's Union for Civil Liberties and is known for his work among tribals.

Sen is an alumnus of the Vellore Christian Medical College of Tamil Nadu that forwarded a copy of the award announcement to IANS.

"Sen's accomplishments speak volumes about what can be achieved in very poor areas when health practitioners are also committed community leaders," said Nils Daulaire, president of the Global Health Council, announcing the award.

"His good works need to be recognised as a major contribution to India and to global health; they are certainly not a threat to state security," the Global Health Council said in its citation.

The 58-year-old paediatrician was selected by an international jury of public health professionals for this prestigious award "because of his years of service to 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".

The Global Health Council and several prominent global health organisations have issued a statement of support for Sen, requesting that the Indian authorities "assure the restoration of due process, and find the means to allow the doctor to receive his award in person in Washington, DC May 29, 2008, at the 35th Annual International Conference on Global Health".

"Sen is a great believer in the rule of law and has great faith in the democratic process," journalist and rights activist Garimella Subramaniam, who met him in August in jail, told IANS here.

"At the time, he was full of ideas about the larger campaign against various authoritarian anti-terror state laws that are used by governments to muzzle dissent".