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This is Mallipalli, in Central Orissa.
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If everything seems neat and mannicured, at
least from the sky, it is because it is.
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If everything seems neat and mannicured, at
least from the sky, it is because it is.
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Well delimited fields, weeds kept under control, mostly due to hard
work in this acricultural hearth of India.
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But also, more often than not, thanks to a
weedkiller. Almost every home keeps a
bottle on a shelf or in a corner.
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Devcharan kept in here, under a pile of
wicks.
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My son wanted to study in Mumbai, he needed
8000 rupees. He thought he had found the money, but it fell through.
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The next day I came back tired from the
fields, my son sat there, was not feeling well.
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He said nothing of what he had taken. He
had blisters on his tongue.
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He was only 18 years old.
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Shiva had no intention to kill himself. In
a moment of rage, he took a sip from the first poison he found - unlucily it
was Paraquat, a powerful weedkiller
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The doctor said he had taken the Paraquat.
I could not imagine something like this happened to my son.
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We are doomed if kids keep dyeing like
this!
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He was my light and life and now I am
finished!
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Shiva ended up here, too late.
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We are at Burla hospital, the biggest in an
area of the span of 300 kilometres where the seriously ingured
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also those poisoned by Paraquat, often they
reach after halts in several local health centres unequipped for treatment
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Inside we are going to see in which state
lay public health structures in this country, be ready for a shock.
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Crowded corridors, nauseating smells, zero
hygiene -
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Here works every day Dr Shankar Ramchamdani, also know as “Doctor Paraquat”.
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Dozen patients wait for hours in his
visiting room to receive 5 minutes of his attention. After the day care, the
doctor moves to the wards
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Here there are the most ill patients. Today
on bed n 145 there is Anand.
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Paraquat dyclorure is responsible of
hundreds of deaths in India, mostly suicides, 100 a year only in the state of
Orissa.
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Like Anand and Shiva, most victims act on a
whim, have not planned suicide, grabs
the first poison available.
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The problem is that if it is bleach or rat
poison, there is a cure, if it is another pesticide, there are antidotes, they
can be saved..
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But if it is Paraquat, just a tea spoon and
there is nothing tro do.
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I will not see him again. Anand died on
November 17, of pulmonary fibrosis.
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Doctor Shankar Ramchandani has taken this
battle at heart.
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Twice he went on hunger strike. Together
with other doctors in Orissa, they demand a ban on this weedkiller.
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Over 50 countries have banned it, including
China, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, but not in India, the world largest agriculture.
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The 5 october 2023 a first step, the state
of Orissa has banned it but only for two months, as that is all a State can do.
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The ban was a surprise for the farmers in
Orissa. 90% uses it because it has reduced manual work by a lot.
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This union leader in Bhagar district says
that the area suffers with the second highest number of cancers
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because the use of chemical fertilizers and
pesticides here is the highest in Asia
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In this instance the farmers are divided in
two: those who don’t want the ban, and those who understand it is necessary.
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In this district the suicide rate is very
high. But before, they could be saved
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Since they are making use of Paraquat, 95%
of the attempted suicides becomes certain death.
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Without training or education, shifting
away from Paraquat is not easy.
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This group of farmers says they are not
happy with the ban
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the labour is too expensive, they say,
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The ban is soon to expire, meanwhile the
state of Orissa has actually sealed boxes in agro shops
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Syngenta, the Swiss based but now China
owned agro giant, has invented Paraquat. They say they have stopped
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selling in India, by selling their trade
mark Gramoxone to an Indian firm, Crystal Crops.
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This shop in Chandigarh has one bottle
still
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The owner says they do not give any
particular instructions and they sell it to anyone, even to non farmers, even
to me.
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Punjab is the bread basket of India,
produces half the cereals and the rice of the country
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but swallows 4 times the pesticides and
other chemicals.
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Here too suicides are running high with the
weedkiller that leaves no hope.
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Everythimg is so green and lush here, it
seems very beautiful
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Dr Hargupratap Singh wants a ban in Punjab
like in Orissa and to send a strong signal to New Delhi
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The hospital organises awareness days for
the Paraquat, with farmers and union leaders
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When we buy it they don’t warn us of
anything, not evern to use gloves or masks or to keep it away from children
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In India is even available online, on
Amazon
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However whenre it has been banned suicides went down and agro production did
not suffer
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Why then India was not able to ban it?
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We have to ask this to the minister for
chemicals and fertilizers, Manshukh Mandavya. Only, he does not reply to our
mails and phone calls
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We try to meet him in Delhi, but at the
ministrer office they send us away
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They are sending us to the Health ministry
nearby. Curiously enough the minister for chemicals is the same
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as the mninister of health, the same
person, mister Mandavya.
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they are saying the minister is out of town
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Instead we meet human right activist and
lawyer Colin Gonsalves
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how can a country sell a substance, banned
in its own country, to other countries?
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Are lobbies so powerful? Several
commissions have advised on banning Paraquat but it somehow makes it out of
these lists last minute.
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How does the lobby work?
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How can the victims get justice?
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Did
you try a legal action?
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Waiting for a ban, people keep dieing. We
get a call from Chandigarh hospital.
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We find this farmers coming from a Himalaya
village. He drank a mouthful of Paraquat thinking it was cough syrup.
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He has no hope to survive.
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And a 16 year old boy. Doctor Ashish Bhalla
is doing all he can.
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This boy is not from a farmers family. He
had a fight with his father and drunk the Paraquat the parents had bought to
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get rid of a tree on their urban terrace.
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Now he has blisters in his mouth and
esophagus. He suffers terribly.
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This poison is so dangerous. We are seeing
doctors and doctors and they are very pessimistic.
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They talk about organ failures and they do
nothing,
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How can something like this still be on
sale? How can a mother live with this pain?
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Can we live without this weekdiller?
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India needs to guarantee food security for
its 1 billion 400 milion people.
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The farm of Vandana Shiva, an environmental
activist, at the foothill of the Himalaya, wants to prove that
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agro chemicals are not indispensable to
farming today
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Vandana educated over 200,000 farmers in
the region to do withouth agro chemicals. But this farmer did not need
convincing
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What happens if you use chemical substances
in the fields? The food is poisoned, you will get sick,
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farmers here understood that, Vandana
taught us all how to do without
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He teaches his children and grandchildren
who help him on the farm before school every day.
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During this film we met several poisoned
patients all across India. ALL of them died.
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But there is hope for the 16 year old boy from Chandigarh