Pesticide Safety Companion

Anil Kumar Sharma, pictured here is from village and post office Roniya. This village is under the Khidar Sarai thana of Gaya district in Bihar. I do not know the pincode.

Anil has cancer of the bone. An elder from his village, who is a cancer-survivor himself, brought Anil to Mumbai soon after the bone pain started. Anil's cancer detection and treatment started relatively early as a result.

Anil has had nothing to do with pesticides in his life before cancer. He may have everything to do with it as he recovers.

Repeated operations have left Anil's right lower limb shorter than his left leg. Anil used to drive a commercial vehicle. He will never be fit enough to drive one again. He runs a shop in the village, selling items of everyday consumption in a struggle to make ends meet.

Anil has agreed to my following suggestions:

1. That he covers his family with medical insurance.
2. That he becomes an insurance agent and sells rural insurance products as detailed in the following link:
http://www.niacl.com/social-rural.asp
3. That he provides expertise in safe and judicious pesticide use. Though Anil has never had anything to do with pesticides in the past, he is willing to get trained and to acquire the required skills.

Please send get-well messages of support to Anil. You can do this directly or by posting below. Hindi transliteration is enabled at this web site, and Anil is fluent in his mother-tongue.

I have approached the New India Assurance Company Limited on August 21st 2008, for help to market health insurance in rural areas. I hope to progress the matter before this month is over.

Here is a link to my interview with Anil on August 19, 2008:

http://satyabroto.podbean.com/2008/08/21/pesticide-safety-companion/