Bhubaneswar: The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has asked the Centre and the state government to file reports in connection with the death of three students in Keonjhar due to snakebite, an official said Saturday.
While hearing a plea filed by rights activist Radhakanta Tripathy, the commission asked the Secretaries of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (H&FW) as well as Odisha’s H&FW department, and district Collectors of Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj, Bolangir, Khurda, Boudh and Bhadrak to submit their reports within six weeks on Keonjhar’s triple snakebite deaths.
In his petition, Tripathy informed the NHRC that snakebites claim nearly 58,000 lives in the country every year. “Three students – Raja, 12, Shehashree, 10, and Ellina, 7, — died, while another student was rendered critical after a venomous snake bit them at a private coaching centre in Keonjhar district July 22, 2023,” the rights activist said.
He said snakebite fatalities account for over 40 per cent of total disaster deaths in Odisha. “Snakebite deaths in Odisha have increased to 1,159 in 2021 from 522 in 2015 due to shortage of anti-venoms in government-run health facilities including SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack.
Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Rajasthan and Gujarat contribute to 70 per cent of snakebite deaths in India.
Tripathy urged the NHRC to ensure release of compensation and benefits under social welfare schemes to the next of kin of the deceased and action against officials who failed to ensure safety and security of the students.
The petitioner also urged the Rights body to direct the authorities to make available adequate anti-venom in hospitals, maintain comprehensive national data on snakebite cases and designate snakebite as a ‘Notifiable Disease’ within the ‘Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme’ to get a permanent solution to the problem.
Gyan Ranjan Mohapatra, OP
