- Dr. Binayak Sen helped to set up the Chhattisgarh Mukti Morcha’s Shaheed Hospital, a pioneering health programme for the region. The hospital is owned and operated by a workers’ organization for the benefit of all, regardless of caste or any other background.

- Dr. Sen and his wife, Dr. Ilina Sen, are the founders of Rupantar, a community-based nongovernmental organization that has trained, deployed and monitored the work of community health workers spread throughout 20 villages. Rupantar’s activities include initiatives to counter alcohol abuse and violence against women, and to promote food security.

- Dr Sen was the recipient in 2004 of the Paul Harrison award for a lifetime of service to the rural poor. This award is given annually by the prestigious Christian Medical College in Vellore, India, to one of its alumni.

- Dr. Sen was awarded the R.R. Keithan Gold Medal by The Indian Academy of Social Sciences (ISSA) on 31 December 2007. The citation describes him as “one of the most eminent scientists” of India. “The award is for his outstanding contribution to the advancement of science of Nature-Man-Society and his honest and sincere application for the improvement of quality of life of the poor, the downtrodden and the oppressed people of Chhattisgarh.” His “suffering and personal risk” would inspire scientists as well as the general public for a very long time, according to the citation.

- Dr. Sen has been selected for the highest international honour in Global Health and Human Rights, the Jonathan Mann Award for 2008, established by the Global Health Council. The Global Health Council issued a public statement, “This 58-year-old pediatrician 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 health care services where none existed, and his unwavering commitment to civil liberties and human rights.

Now one would ask what is a person of his stature doing in jail? Dr. Sen was arrested in May 2007 and has spent a year in jail, most of it without trial. Though the trial is now underway, there are growing, legitimate fears about the fairness of the exercise. He has been accused of links with the Maoists on the basis of a fully above board, legitimate, supervised visit to a Naxal leader, Narayan Sanyal in prison, who he had been treating medically. But the real reason, as pointed out by several prominent figures including Noam Chomsky in a press statement, is for speaking out against “…fake encounters, rapes, burning of villages and displacement of adivasis [indigenous tribals] in tens of thousands and consequent loss of livelihoods…”, all carried out by the state machinery.

What the Maoists have done, as Dr. Sen believes, is that they “have tapped into a groundswell of legitimate grievances”.(BBC – Dr Binayak Sen: Tribal doctor) But he has never supported Maoist violence. (“I have never condoned Maoist violence. It is an invalid and unsustainable movement.” – Tehelka magazine)

So let us now look at the whole situation in perspective. People at the very margins of society, desperately poor people, people who have been ignored by the government for decades are inspired by a group of rebels to take up arms and carry on a violent struggle. There are also human rights activists who have been working with these same poor people to bring about change but in a non-violent manner. Ideally the government should engage these activists, provide them support so that the non-violent means to improve the lives of these people get a boost and the justification of taking up arms is defeated. Then the government could deal with the rebels in a manner it deems fit, but again without excesses. Instead here we have the government violently crushing the rebels, often using extra-legal methods of government-armed vigilantes, putting the non-violent activists behind bars and probably doing all it can to maintain the status quo, which also means maintaining the people in poverty. And all this is happening in the country which prides itself to be the world’s largest democracy.

For a clearer picture of Dr. Sen, his activities, his arrest and trial, the international support that he keeps getting etc. please do read the Wikipedia article on him. For news about efforts to get him out of prison, visit www.freebinayaksen.org. For an article by Dr. P Zachariah, the retired Head of Physiology at the Christian Medical College, Vellore in which he examines the life of his former student read this article in Tehelka titled “A Prize For The Prisoner“.

(Primary Source: Wikipedia – Binayak Sen)