Pesticide poisonings stir NHRC
the National Human Rights Commission (nhrc) recently issued a notice to Andhra Pradesh (ap) chief secretary on a complaint that chemical pesticides had threatened the right to life of farmers and agricultural workers. G V Ramanjaneyulu and Kavitaa Kuruganti of Secunderabad - based Centre for Sustainable Agriculture were the complainants. The notice asks the chief secretary to submit a detailed report within four weeks, failing which nhrc will take such action as it deems proper.
The complaint pointed out that India still produces and sells many toxic pesticides that are either banned in other countries or are categorised as "extremely hazardous' and "highly hazardous' by the World Health Organization. The un Food and Agriculture Organization has also suggested halting the use of many of these.
Ramanjaneyulu and Kuruganti drew nhrc's attention to the estimated three million reported cases of pesticide poisoning that occur annually at the global level, leading to around 220,000 deaths. 99 per cent of these are in developing countries, despite them accounting for only 20 per cent of global pesticide use. Pesticides Action Network Asia and the Pacific says the numbers are higher: 25 million poisonings globally every year. The complaint stressed that despite varying estimates, it was abundantly clear that there was no monitoring system to understand and assess the problem's magnitude and the various issues involved. Even by conservative estimates, thousands of workers in ap alone must be getting poisoned every year but no official figures are available in this regard, it pointed out.
According to a 2002 fact-finding report, an estimated 500 pesticide poisoning deaths occurred in ap's Warangal district between August 2001 and December 2001. Andhra Pradesh Rythu Sangam, a farmers' union, had also documented widespread pesticide poisonings that year. In 2004, from seven hospitals in Warangal district alone, nearly 200 cases were recorded by the Centre for Sustainable Agriculture and Modern Architects for Rural India. The complaint highighted that ap doesn't treat pesticide deaths as