M A I N   N E W S

Migrant camps-I
TRIBUNE SPECIAL
Living in filth, squalor, disease...
Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service

Jammu, June 25
Condemned to a life of indignity in the four migrant camps of Jammu, displaced Kashmiri Pandits seem to have forgotten the meaning of healthy, hygienic existence. Pitched in the dark corners of their so-called tenements, provided to them by the state government, they wait in line for health services which are utterly lacking in the migrant camps based in Jammu district. Facilities, however, evade them like never before. No wonder the inmates of the Kashmiri Pandit refugee camps in Jammu are said to be suffering from a number of diseases, resulting in low fertility and high mortality rates. The camps at Nagrota, Muthi, Pukhroo and Mishriwala are characterised by filth and squalor. There is no proper arrangement for water here and the little water that flows poses a potential danger to the life of the residents, who, as per the visiting doctors in the camp medical centres, are facing an all-time high in the incidence of diarrhoea, dysentery and other water-borne diseases. Not just that, depression among the migrant Pandits is assuming alarming proportions.

A visit to the four camps today only served to confirm the Report of Doctors in Exile for the Human Rights, which says that from among the migrant Kashmiri Pandits housed in the base migrant camps, 98 per cent are victims of depression, 23 per cent have developed major personality disorders over the past 11 years of exile, 19 per cent complain of anxiety neurosis, 8 per cent of panic attacks, 7.5 per cent of fear psychosis and the rest 5.2 are suffering from a high degree of post-stress syndrome.

Not that the state government has not done anything substantial to check the alarming proportion of infections found among the migrants, the four camps in question have these so-called medical aid centres which are too poorly equipped to handle the large section of diseased migrants housed in the camps. As The Tribune travelled to the camps today to find out what the status of medical facilities was, it was shocked to find a highly-unhygienic state of these centres. Not just that, they are not equipped with even the basic first-aid kit. There were no chairs for the staff, no proper stools or beds for patients. The Nagrota camp (the first migrant camp to be set up after the migration started) had nothing to boast of, with its medical aid centre lacking in basic facilities. Talking to The Tribune, nursing orderly of the centre, Mr Somnath, said: “Infections on account of dirty hand pump water, dog bites, scorpion bites and snake bites is on the rise. But here we have very little medical aid to offer as emergency support system. What to talk of an emergency, we do not even have the basic supply of spirit and betadine to inject the patients in time of need.”

The pharmacist of the centre, Mr Roshal Lal, had similar problems to voice. He informed that the medical aid centres in all the camps had a fixed supply of medicines, which was not enough for even five or six patients. The rough estimated strength of families at Nagrota, Muthi, Pukhroo and Mishriwala camps is 1,000, 800, 1,300 and 1,000, respectively. The supply of tablets, capsules, disposable syringes and injections is daily, but reportedly very meagre. Attendants in all four camps revealed that the supply was simply “insufficient”. Said Roshan Lal. “We have to refer most of the cases to Government Medical College, Jammu. Also we have to write prescriptions so that the patients get their medicines from outside.”

The worst-affected are those who require relief in the shape of life-saving drugs. Informed the attendant at Muthi medical centre, “We are supplied just one injection dexcona, which is a life-saving drug. You can well imagine what would happen in case someone is bitten by a snake or a scorpion.” With the monsoon setting in, the incidence of bites will further rise. The staff at medical centres is already showing its helplessness in dealing with the situation. Another problem arises in the case of women who need gynaecological care. Investigations revealed that the staff at these medical centres comprised two doctors (one MD and one MS), eight pharmacists, one trained nurse, one nursing orderly. There, however, is no visiting gynaecologist. Residents of the Nagrota camp informed that the pharmacist Mr Roshan Lal had attended to about 170 delivery cases during the past about seven years. At the Nagrota migrant camp, even the blood pressure machine, had been purchased by the residents who saved money from their already meagre relief of Rs 2400 per month. The medical attendants, however, said that the machine was now falling out of shape.

The condition is no better at the other camps.

Disposable syringes — 5 syringes of 2 ml capacity

Life saving drug — dexcona 1 injection daily

Soframycin eye drops — 2 voils a day

Tetanus oxide injection — 1 ampule a day