Human Rights Watch honors Chairman of Pallium India
Dr M. R. Rajagopal, Chairman of Pallium India, was honored by Human Rights Watch with the Alison Des Forges award for Extraordinary Activism on November 9. In the first of the Voices for Justice dinners held in Santa Barbara, Dr Rajagopal and Shin Dong-Hyuk from North Korea were honored by Human Rights Watch. (Click here for a few pictures from the event.)
Dr Rajagopal spoke about how, as a medical student, he was much affected and grieved by the screams of a neighbor who was suffering from cancer. “When I became a doctor, I chose anesthesiology – so that I could treat pain,” said Dr Rajagopal. “There has been little interest in caring for people who could not be cured. Most of them die appalling deaths, abandoned by the healthcare system.” Dr Rajagopal expressed gratitude to Human Rights Watch for the honor and also for their support in bringing relief and comfort and dignity to so many in India.
Dr M. R. Rajagopal’s work over nearly twenty years has contributed to development of India’s National Program in Palliative Care (NPPC) in 2012 and to the Amendment of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act of India in 2014.
The second of the Voices for Justice dinners will be held at Los Angeles on November 11.