Ponnani: This is the tale of a panchayat and its people effectively fighting an untamed cancer scourge. Till a decade ago, the Maranchery panchayat in Ponnani, Malappuram, was notorious for cancer deaths. Though there are no statistics to prove this, the place earned the monicker of 'cancer panchayat.'
Panchayat president E Sindhu said it was then that the people decided to fight it. Importantly, the panchayat wanted to break the 'cancer image' taboo, she said. “There was something fundamentally wrong with the general health of the public, starting with lifestyle. The change was not possible at one go and it could not be one-dimensional. A complete shift to green ways of living was needed to promote health and spread awareness,” she says.
The panchayat, in 2013, started the Athijeevanam project which was a 'holistic' way of creating a symbiotic and healthy cosmology for living. The task in hand was no easy one. The panchayat, long in the glum pool of a disease, was struggling to emerge healthy and put out a model for the rest of the world to emulate.
The panchayat launched a waste management project alongside for transition to a 'healthy atmosphere.' To begin with, the panchayat undertook a survey to create a log of the most-prevalent diseases. Six cancer screening camps were organised with help from the Malabar Cancer Care Society.
With the survey, the panchayat and the people were more aware of their health scenarios. Women, especially the younger lot, spoke out openly about alcoholism of their menfolk. A no-disease situation was impossible but prevention strategies and environment protection programmes started simultaneously, Sindhu said.
As the world observed Environment Day (June 5) with the planting of saplings for a day, Maranchery chose to differ. They cleaned their premises and started permanent methods to segregate and manage waste at source. Pipe compost units were installed in 1,000 houses in the first stage. Bio-gas plants too were set up. After eight years, the panchayat set up a plastic carry bag unit, recycling more than 1 tonne plastic till date.
“The need to recycle plastic was an emergency, as the water sources in the area were getting polluted. Plastic wastes were being dumped in the nearby Kundukadavu river. There were protests from various quarters against the unit initially. However, the plant started functioning in 2017, in Parichakam, near the primary health centre (PHC). The Kudumbasree workers continue to collect waste from houses at Rs 30 per sack. A 'Haritha Sena' (green army) with 38 workers take up the waste collection work (two people per ward). Three are employed at the plant," Sindhu says.
The panchayat is also the only one in the state to run a dialysis unit attached to the PHC, with six machines. It also runs four palliative care units. Non-resident Keralites provide fifty per cent of the funds for the dialysis unit. A physiotherapy unit, earlier meant only for children, would be functional from June.
The local body was adjudged the 'best panchayat' and won the Kerala government's Swaraj Trophy for 2015-16. On April 24, prime minister Narendra Modi honoured the panchayat for bagging the Deendayal Upadhyaya Panchayat Sasasthreekaran Puraskar.
Read more: World Environment Day