Dimapur, July 12 (MExN): The Naga Peoples Movement for Human Rights (NPMHR) has informed the Naga public of the imminent threat posed by “motivated individuals” collecting Naga blood samples for a multi-billion Multi-National Company, Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited, with “pharmaceutical interests”. It has also warned Kohima Diagnostic Centre and Dimapur Care-Well Diagnostic Centre to stop storage and transfer of Naga blood samples collected for Ranbaxy Laboratories.
The NPMHR recollected its earlier meeting with representatives of Delhi-based Research and Development Initiatives Private Limited (RDI), which has been acting as the local nodal agency for the implementation of a demographic health status and trends sampling survey (The Morung Express, May 18). The project is funded by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, and questionnaire sheets prepared for computing indicators by the International Institute for Population Studies, Mumbai. The NPMHR stated that it had expressed in clear terms the Nagas’ disapproval of the illegal inclusion of collection of Naga blood samples and subsequent transfer to Ranbaxy, Mumbai.
“NPMHR clearly indicated that the questionnaire is different from blood collection and transfer. Further to this meeting, NPMHR requested the gathering of all Naga employees engaged in the blood collection for briefing at Dimapur, which was agreed upon by RDI but was later revoked” Kekhrie Yhome, Co-Convener, Nagaland Sector NPMHR stated.
NPMHR also recounted its earlier meeting in May, along with the Naga Students Federation and Angami Students Federation, with Secretary, Department of Health & Family Welfare, Government of Nagaland, and Senior Bureaucrats and Technical Experts from Nagaland State AIDS Control Society (NSACS) and Nagaland Departments of Medical and Health Welfare, at the initiation of RDI representatives.
During the meeting the NPMHR requested the furnishing of documents necessary to highlight that the HFW Ministry has entered into a memorandum of undertaking to collect blood for a private commercial Ranbaxy.
“NPMHR reminds the concern parties that as per the agreement reached during this meeting it was decided that RDI would immediately stop the collection and transfer of any blood samples and further stop even any activity premised on the site destruction extraction of blood. NPMHR regrets to inform that despite all these mutually arrived understandings, RDI has launched itself into a dangerous role of using some trained Nagas to collect blood and has been sending those samples to Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited and even resorting to threatening that it has the approval and mandate of MoHFW” it stated.
The NPMHR noted here that there are no laboratories under MoHFW that has the capacity to conduct human genomic studies and “it is also our sincere trust that the Ministry will not indulge in the collection and transfer of Naga blood to a private commercial industry without any moratorium”.
The organization also mentioned its 2002 pioneering campaign against one Indian lecturer, Department of Zoology, Nagaland University, who the NPMHR said ultimately fled, in collection of Naga blood samples for Centre of Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, and Centre for Industrial and Scientific Research, New Delhi, to determine the “origin of Nagas” (sic). The NPMHR asserted that any attempt to collect Naga blood is an attempt avowed with politico-cultural motivation and genetic imperialism.
Following the collection of blood samples, NPMHR did not rule out the possibilities of gene sequencing and mapping and virulent drug testing that will make any ‘tribe’ vulnerable, not to forget the patenting rights that will be deprived once deliveries take place. “It is also a predominant modus operandi that in blood collection, remote rural areas are targeted so that people do not question such activities. It is highly regrettable that RDI has collected and transferred many blood samples from Mon and Tuensang areas, as per confirmed sources” stated the NPMHR and for this, sought the vigilance of every educated and sensitive Naga to be wary of “certain individuals who are using MoHFW’s name and conducting blood tests for Anaemia, AIDS, and hemoglobin level and questioning the sexual performance of the Nagas.”
“NPMHR will henceforth be unaccountable for the individual Nagas who are assisting the New Delhi-based Research and Development Initiative Private Limited for temporal incentives, by collecting blood samples” the organization said and sternly warned Kohima Diagnostic Centre and Dimapur Care-Well Diagnostic Centre to desist storage and transfer of Naga blood samples collected for Ranbaxy Laboratories Private Limited. “Any initiators or collaborators to this bloodsucking project will be solely at personal risk’ it made clear.
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