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INDIA: Unattended dead body eaten by rats in public hospital

June 27, 2006

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ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION – URGENT APPEALS PROGRAMME

Urgent Appeal

28 June 2006
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UA-206-2006: INDIA: Unattended dead body eaten by rats in public hospital

INDIA: Professional negligence; degrading treatment
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The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received shocking information from MASUM, a human rights organisation in West Bengal regarding the dead body of Anarkali Bibi. It was learnt that the hospital authority abandoned the late Anarkali‘s body to an area infested with rats. This is not only a case of negligence but also one of utter failure in discharging legal obligations. The body of the late Anarkali was handled in such an appalling and undignified manner by the Hospital authorities concerned.

On the afternoon of 11 June 2006, Anarkali Bibi was frustrated over domestic problems and attempted to commit suicide by hanging herself from the ceiling in her room. However, she was found by family members who took her immediately to the Katwa Sub divisional Hospital at about 7.15pm where she was admitted to the female ward under Dr. Jatai Krishna Mondal. Sadly her condition was so critical that at 8:30pm she died.

The Anarkali family requested for the body in order to arrange for a funeral. The hospital authority turned down their request on the basis that the body was still in need of a post-mortem examination. They asked the relatives to return the next day for the body which was then left abandoned and unattended at the hospital.

The sordid episode happened between the time of Anarkali’s death and her post mortem examination. On June 12 (Monday), when Anarkali’s family members arrived at Katwa Sub Divisional Hospital, they had initially failed to identify Anarkali’s body as her face was already mutilated beyond recognition. They found Anarkali’s body had been ripped and torn apart by rats and cockroaches. The scene was horrifying to witness.  The corps was in a horrendous state and had been left in the open, unpreserved and was vested with creatures.
 
The statement of Mr. Thirthendu Ganguly, Officer-in-Charge (OIC) of Katwa Police Station corroborated with the claims, which stated that the bed was full of bugs and other insects. Parts of Anarkali’s body were bitten off throughout the night with visible marks remaining.

The family members tried to lodge a complaint with Hospital Superintendent, Dr. Goutam Ghosh but he refused to meet with them. The relatives became angry and began to protest. The Superintendent called the police who then battened the protestors in order to disperse them. Some time later the relatives of Anarkali were finally allowed to lodge a written complaint with the Hospital Superintendent.

According to Section 174 (3) (i) of the Criminal Procedure Code (Cr.P.C), if death of any woman takes place within seven years of the marriage, post mortem and magisterial inquiry become essential requirements. This provision was incorporated into the Cr.P.C in 1983 following an amendment to the Indian Penal Code incorporating Section 498 A, thus criminalising acts of cruelty against women by her husband or relatives of the husband.

Section 174 (3) (v) also mandates “[T]he police officer for any reason considers it expedient so to do, he shall, subject such rules as the State Government may prescribe in this behalf, forward the body, with a view to it being examined, to the nearest, Civil Surgeon, or other qualified medical man [emphasis added] appointed in this behalf by the State Government…without the risk of putrefaction on the road as would render such examination useless].

Anarkali had attempted to commit suicide within one year of her marriage. Therefore Mr. Pyne, the Executive Magistrate made an inquiry under Section 174 of Cr. P.C with the result being that a post-mortem examination was carried out. Dr. S. Roy, a radiologist under hospital registration number 169 undertook the post mortem examination on 12 June 2006. However, the body was already in an unrecognisable condition. 

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

Government run hospitals and public healthcare facilities in India are deteriorating by the day. MASUM has been monitoring the post mortem system in West Bengal for some time issuing statements and appeals urging the government to take immediate notice (please see ref. UG-04-2005, UP-18-2004 and UP-138-2005 for further information).

This deterioration also has a direct impact upon the forensic facilities available in these public hospitals. The autopsy conducted upon a person is a goldmine of information regarding the cause of death. This report also plays a pivotal role in criminal cases, particularly where the evidence regarding the guilt of the accused could be only proved through such reports. The absence of proper care and caution while dealing with bodies during forensic procedures results in gross miscarriage of justice. Contrary to the law, in many hospitals, mortuaries are under the lock and key of police officers. This provides police officers ample opportunity to manipulate and tamper with the evidence.

In most cases the autopsy and autopsy reports are not prepared by a qualified medical practitioner but by helpers who are employed on daily wages to clean the mortuary. In many hospitals, the mortuaries are not equipped with freezers to keep the bodies intact and with equipment required to conduct the autopsy examination. The hospitals also lack qualified hands to conduct such examinations owing to the lack of filling vacancies. All these deficiencies are exploited by the police, particularly in cases of custodial death. This is an area of concern in India which the AHRC has been trying to address in the past two years. However, as of today no change has been brought to the situation.

The case mentioned above is yet another shocking example of the horrifying state of the public healthcare system in West Bengal and no authority has been willing to address the issue. When government authorities were approached regarding the conditions at another hospital, the Basirhat Hospital Morgue, in a similar incident but they avoided responsibility by pointing to a lack of funding or said that it was the failure of some other government agencies. 

It is a stark reflection on the government if it continues to tolerate the current conditions in the state’s public hospitals. This is by no means an isolated case and many hospitals have similar if not more dismal facilities and attitudes. Whenever a person gets treatment from a hospital, it is under the purview of the health department. However, if a person dies from an unnatural cause, such facilities and initiatives stand with the home department. The Officer in Charge of Katowa police station, himself accepted that the morgue within the hospital is pathetic. Dead bodies would inevitably rot if sent to the morgue.
 
This case and the many others like it should question the government system and its mechanism regarding their approach towards the people, not only with the living but also with the dead. A minimum respect to the dead is being breached on a day-to-day basis and urgent reforms must be implemented to address this. For further information regarding ideal and standard conditions for autopsy procedures please refer to: http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/executioninvestigation-91.html. The site is maintained by the University of Minnesota – Human Rights Library.

SUGGESTED ACTION:

Please send a letter to the relevant authorities listed below regarding the condition of Katwa Sub Divisional Hospital mortuary and your concerns in respect to post mortem procedures.

Automated email letters can be sent by the AHRC Urgent Appeals on-line support system. To support this appeal please refer to http://www.ahrchk.net/support.php?ua=UA-206-2006. For those contacts without an email address, we ask that you still write a letter and post or fax this. If you have any problems or questions using this system, please feel free to contact us at ua@ahrchk.org.
Suggested letter:

Dear ___________,

INDIA: Unacceptable conditions of the Katwa Sub Divisional Hospital mortuary represents the collapse of post mortem system in West Bengal

Name of the victim: Anarkali Bibi (20), Haripur Village, Katowa Police Station, Bardhaman District, West Bengal, India
Name of alleged perpetrators: Superintendent, Doctors, Nurses and officials of Katwa Sub Divisional Hospital, Katwa, Burdwan District
Place of incident: Katwa Sub divisional Hospital, Katwa, Burdwan District
Date of incident: 11 and 12 June 2006

I write to you in shock regarding the appalling conditions of the Katwa Sub divisional Hospital morgue, West Bengal, India which is indicative of the defective post mortem facilities existing in West Bengal.

According to the information I have received, 20-year-old Anarkali Bibi died soon after attempting suicide on 11 June 2006. The sordid episode happened between the time of Anarkali’s death and her post mortem examination. On June 12, Anarkali’s family members arrived at Katwa Sub Divisional Hospital on the instruction of the hospital authority to receive the body after the post mortem examination. On arrival, however, the family members were unable to identify Anarkali’s body because her face and body had been mutilated beyond recognition. They found Anarkali’s body had been ripped and torn apart by rats and cockroaches. The scene was horrifying for the family to witness.
 
The family members tried to lodge a complaint with Hospital Superintendent, Dr. Goutam Ghosh but he refused to meet with them. The relatives became angry and began to protest. The Superintendent then called on the police who battened the protestors in order to disperse them.

The relatives of Anarkali were eventually allowed to lodge a written complaint with the Hospital Superintendent. Dr. S. Roy, a radiologist at the hospital, carried out a post-mortem examination [examination number 169 dated 12 June 2006]. However the body was already in an unrecognisable condition. 

Public Hospitals and healthcare facilities in West Bengal are deteriorating by the day. MASUM has been monitoring the post mortem system in West Bengal for some time issuing statements and appeals urging the government to take immediate notice. This incident is yet another shocking pointer to the horrifying state of the healthcare system in West Bengal and no authority has been willing to address this.

The conditions in the state’s hospital system have arrived at a level that can no longer be ignored by the government authorities. This is by no means an isolated case and many hospitals have similar if not more pitiable facilities and attitudes. It is local knowledge that most morgues in West Bengal lack freezers to preserve the bodies, which is not only disrespectful but is also hampering the judicial process and prosecution as valuable evidence is permitted to rot and decay away.

I therefore urge you to take immediate action in addressing these poor conditions. It is not acceptable to merely lay blame elsewhere and refer to lack of funds, as this will not resolve the problem. One must take personal responsibility in seeing that proper funds are allocated for the adequate reform and functioning of state institutions. Those responsible for poor maintenance of the facilities at Katwa Sub Divisional Hospital mortuary must be held accountable. The Government of India must take genuine action to prevent such crimes continuing in the country.
 
I trust that this matter will be taken seriously and that steps will be taken to ensure proper functioning of hospital facilities.

Yours sincerely,
____________________________

PLEASE SEND LETTERS TO:

1. Mr. Subhash Awasthi
Director General of Police
Government of West Bengal
Writers Buildings
Kolkata-1
West Bengal
INDIA
Fax: +91 33 2214 4498 / 2214 5486
Email: padgp@wbpolice.gov.in

2. Mr. Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee
Chief Minister and Minister in Charge of Home (Police) Department
Government of West Bengal
Writers' Buildings
Kolkata - 700001
West Bengal
INDIA
Tel: +91 33 2214 5555 (O) / 2280 0631 (R)
Fax: +91 33 2214 5480
Email: cm@wb.gov.in

3. Dr. Surjya Kanta Mishra
Minister for Helath and Family Welfare
Government of West Bengal
Writers' Buildings
Kolkata - 700001
West Bengal
INDIA
Tel: + 91 33 2357 3600
Fax: + 91 33 2357 7910
Email: michealth@wb.gov.in

4. Dr. Anbumani Ramdoss
Minister of Health & Family Welfare
Nirman Bhavan, New Delhi
INDIA
Tel: 91 11 23061647
Fax: 91 11 23062358
Email: hfm@alpha.nic.in

5. Mr. P.R. Ray
Home Secretary
Government of West Bengal
Writers' Buildings
Kolkata - 700001
West Bengal
INDIA
Tel: +91 33 2214 5656
Fax: +91 33 2214 3001
Email: sechome@wb.gov.in

Thank you.

Urgent Appeals Programme
Asian Human Rights Commission (ahrchk@ahrchk.org)

Document Type :
Urgent Appeal Case
Document ID :
UA-206-2006
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Extended Introduction: Urgent Appeals, theory and practice

A need for dialogue

Many people across Asia are frustrated by the widespread lack of respect for human rights in their countries.  Some may be unhappy about the limitations on the freedom of expression or restrictions on privacy, while some are affected by police brutality and military killings.  Many others are frustrated with the absence of rights on labour issues, the environment, gender and the like. 

Yet the expression of this frustration tends to stay firmly in the private sphere.  People complain among friends and family and within their social circles, but often on a low profile basis. This kind of public discourse is not usually an effective measure of the situation in a country because it is so hard to monitor. 

Though the media may cover the issues in a broad manner they rarely broadcast the private fears and anxieties of the average person.  And along with censorship – a common blight in Asia – there is also often a conscious attempt in the media to reflect a positive or at least sober mood at home, where expressions of domestic malcontent are discouraged as unfashionably unpatriotic. Talking about issues like torture is rarely encouraged in the public realm.

There may also be unwritten, possibly unconscious social taboos that stop the public reflection of private grievances.  Where authoritarian control is tight, sophisticated strategies are put into play by equally sophisticated media practices to keep complaints out of the public space, sometimes very subtly.  In other places an inner consensus is influenced by the privileged section of a society, which can control social expression of those less fortunate.  Moral and ethical qualms can also be an obstacle.

In this way, causes for complaint go unaddressed, un-discussed and unresolved and oppression in its many forms, self perpetuates.  For any action to arise out of private frustration, people need ways to get these issues into the public sphere.

Changing society

In the past bridging this gap was a formidable task; it relied on channels of public expression that required money and were therefore controlled by investors.  Printing presses were expensive, which blocked the gate to expression to anyone without money.  Except in times of revolution the media in Asia has tended to serve the well-off and sideline or misrepresent the poor.

Still, thanks to the IT revolution it is now possible to communicate with large audiences at little cost.  In this situation there is a real avenue for taking issues from private to public, regardless of the class or caste of the individual.

Practical action

The AHRC Urgent Appeals system was created to give a voice to those affected by human rights violations, and by doing so, to create a network of support and open avenues for action.  If X’s freedom of expression is denied, if Y is tortured by someone in power or if Z finds his or her labour rights abused, the incident can be swiftly and effectively broadcast and dealt with. The resulting solidarity can lead to action, resolution and change. And as more people understand their rights and follow suit, as the human rights consciousness grows, change happens faster. The Internet has become one of the human rights community’s most powerful tools.   

At the core of the Urgent Appeals Program is the recording of human rights violations at a grass roots level with objectivity, sympathy and competence. Our information is firstly gathered on the ground, close to the victim of the violation, and is then broadcast by a team of advocates, who can apply decades of experience in the field and a working knowledge of the international human rights arena. The flow of information – due to domestic restrictions – often goes from the source and out to the international community via our program, which then builds a pressure for action that steadily makes its way back to the source through his or her own government.   However these cases in bulk create a narrative – and this is most important aspect of our program. As noted by Sri Lankan human rights lawyer and director of the Asian Human Rights Commission, Basil Fernando:

"The urgent appeal introduces narrative as the driving force for social change. This idea was well expressed in the film Amistad, regarding the issue of slavery. The old man in the film, former president and lawyer, states that to resolve this historical problem it is very essential to know the narrative of the people. It was on this basis that a court case is conducted later. The AHRC establishes the narrative of human rights violations through the urgent appeals. If the narrative is right, the organisation will be doing all right."

Patterns start to emerge as violations are documented across the continent, allowing us to take a more authoritative, systemic response, and to pinpoint the systems within each country that are breaking down. This way we are able to discover and explain why and how violations take place, and how they can most effectively be addressed. On this path, larger audiences have opened up to us and become involved: international NGOs and think tanks, national human rights commissions and United Nations bodies.  The program and its coordinators have become a well-used tool for the international media and for human rights education programs. All this helps pave the way for radical reforms to improve, protect and to promote human rights in the region.