 KK Shelja, a name that became synonymous with success when it came to dealing with COVID-19. KK Shelja was the health minister of Kerala when the state dealt with multiple crises, starting from Cyclone Occhi to clouds to the Nipah virus and then to COVID-19. Under her leadership, the state was able to deal with these crises with utmost care and was able to save many, many lives. However, Shelja teacher has always said that this was not because of an individual effort but due to collective action. Today, we are joined by KK Shelja to talk about her recently launched book, My Life as Comrade, in which she talks about her tenure as a health minister, her political journey, the Kerala model and much more. So, you know, before we talk about how the state under your leadership managed to keep COVID casualty so low or your experience dealing with the Nipah virus, let's start by your personal journey. In your book, you know, you detail about how your family members participated in many historical struggles and how the fact that, you know, your family was based in a place like Kerala, more specifically Kannur, which is a bastion for the left, shaped the person who you are to do. So, can you start talking about that, tell us more about that? Actually, I didn't intend to write a book about me but always I am thinking, I was thinking about writing a book with about my grandma and my grandangles and the great struggles they led in their village at that time, you know, it is according to the left ideology. That is in 1930s, 40s and 50s and when we got independence during the independence struggle, our places, all the Kerala lands were under the ownership of the landlord and the poor peasants were in great struggle and they were actually they were starving because these landlords were collecting levies from the poor people there and the caste system, the most vulnerable or ugly face of the feudalism is caste differentiation and caste differentiation was also there in our village and my grandma and grandangles were fighting against the British rule and also against the caste system, caste untouchability, such kind of activities there and when I was a child, my grandma told me all the stories. She was a very good storyteller, not only Varanasi and Ludhikasa, she was telling the stories of great martyrs, great struggles they led and I was very much interested in communist ideology from childhood itself and my place, Payam Panchayat and that Payam and nearby places where the places of great freedom struggle and also these peasants struggled against landlords at that time and my grandangles called K. Ramu, M.K. Krishnan, I explained in my book about that and they were also great fighters. They joined in the international congress first and fought against independence, for independence against British rule. When they came to know about the left ideology that is 1930s, late 30s, 1939, there was a meeting in nearby place called Parapuram and Rai, our chief minister's place, the congress socialist party workers joined and they declared the open function of communist party unit in our place and my uncles also joined in communist party at that time. They were very much interested in socialism, communist ideology. They believed that when we got independence only through socialism we can make equality to the poor people and this kind of struggles and their bravery that attracted me very much and my grandma was a brave lady. She directly fought against untouchability and not only fighting but also she was a social worker more than that. She served the society from this socialist ideology. She developed an attitude to help others and superstitions. She fought against superstitions. I described everything in my book and how she fought against small folks. The people believed it as a curse of a goddess and they were not giving them treatment. No one is going, no one is there to go near by but my grandma fought against that also. She enraged the people who affected this infectious disease and this kind of thing I want to put for the next generation. At that time, when I was minister from 2016 to 21, after the 2021 election, I was not there in the ministry. At that time Jagannath Publications Chicky Sarkar called me that she wants to write a book on me and she wants to get my childhood experiences and the story of the village etc. That is the reason to write this book. Absolutely and of course telling stories about your grandmother, how she was a revolutionary but I think in many ways she was your mother. When she was 5 in her marriage, she sought a divorce which was very rare at the time for a woman to take such a decision. So how did the woman in your family influence you and later on your work in the Mahila Association and as the minister of a woman and child development? Yes, all the women in my family have had different stories. One way or other way they were suffering with these attitudes of the society and the customs and traditions etc. My grandma went outside for social work but at that time my mother and my mother's sister, my auntie, they had to work at home. They had to do all the household activities and our family as you know was a well-built family in the beginning. When my great grandfather was there, he was working in the estate of the British estate, T estate and she had some monthly salary at that time and we were in a good position in the society. We are earning some money and living a life of today's middle class life at that time itself. But after that, after the demise of my great grandfather, everything went away and my uncles become the party workers and they are not earning anything, they are spending all the money with them and we become a doctor and my family become very poor. At that time, my mother and my auntie, they worked hard to meet the ends of the life and she suffered very much and at that time, marriages, as I explained in these books, no one asked the permission or desire of the women about the marriage life. The grand uncles were deciding, they are deciding, they were deciding to whom they will get married, you know. Same way, my mother also get married to a man, my father, 20 years older than her and no one asked her permission. She obeyed. All the family, they were obeying. That was the custom and that was the system in that day. And my mother worked hard. She was a very good lady but she was a brave lady and when she was separated or my father go and marry other women and she discarded our family. At that time, she decided to fight against that. She filed a case in the court that was not common at that time, you know. And we got this something from my father, the land ownership and also some money from him and that way she fought against him. That also made me some feeling of braveness. So, this is the way to live. We should have to fight against this kind of this discrimination and other things. So, how did this whole struggle translate into your work as a woman leader and you know, of course, people always highlight your role as a health minister but at the same time you were also serving the portfolio of the Minister of Women and Child Development. So, from this experience what did you put into your work? Yes, my grandma always took me in all the struggle and all the meetings and conventions etc. study classes etc. I was a little child at that time and she carried me also and from there itself I was interested in these politics, you know. But I was a shy girl at that time and I am not ready to go myself in these meetings and discussions etc. But my grandma once or my grandma persuaded me to to go each and every meeting and talk there. At that time our leaders also youth leaders and women leaders. There was a woman called Nandini, we are calling Nandini Aditya and she always came to our home and she was staying there after the meetings in the village. She also persuaded me and this where a party secretary go with the Muslim now. She was a youth leader at that time. He also asked me to join the Youth Federation and work for the youth. That way from old side I got promotion and I got some support to join the social work, you know. That way I came forward become the unity secretary, the village secretary, area secretary, district secretary, state secretary and at last I reached the party also, party area committee member, district committee member, state committee member. Now I am CPIM, general committee member. Gradually I came forward and I contested in election. Party asked me to contest in assembly election. That was the first election I was conducted, contested. That was in 1996 and I became MLA in Kerala Assembly and I contest four times and I became MLA four times. This is the fourth time, you know. And last time, the third time, my party asked me to join the cabinet. They decided a portfolio to me and that was health and family welfare and the social justice. Later social justice department divided into two social justice women and children and I became a minister in 2016 to 2021. That was the journey, political journey by me. And what were the policies you wanted to implement, you did implement when you reached this position? When I became the minister, the most important portfolio was health and family welfare. The other is also very important, you know. I got most important portfolios, women and children and the social justice of everything. But when my secretary Rajiv Sadhan and then health secretary visited me first, he asked the minister, what is your intention? What is your idea in the health sector? And you please tell me and we will work for you. We have a very good manifesto, you know, LDF, left democratic friends manifesto. And under the leadership of the our brave chief minister, Penrai Vigil, we were working to fulfill that manifesto. I said that in our manifesto it is stated that our health policy should be presented. We should give affordable treatment to old citizens. We should give free treatment for the poor below poverty line. And also we should give quality treatment, you know. That means we should have to strengthen the public health system. And one of my or my dream is to the we should concentrate on the prevention parts, you know. So, I discussed with my secretary that I want to concentrate on primary health system. He was very happy at that time. Madam, you are correct. We should concentrate on primary health system. We can prepare a primary health project. It was there, the central government is also saying about that, but it is not concrete. We should have a concrete plan for the primary health system. Not only the primary, we should have to attend the secondary level and tertiary also. The district level and public level of hospitals and the medical colleges. Entire system, we should have to revive. We should have some kind of reforms because we have a very good public health system, you know, comparing to other states, you know. But our public health system was not modelled in some aspects. There are so many things there and we should have to reform that also. We were ready to preparing that kind of a plan. At the same time, the government decided four missions, four missions. Our chief minister said, one mission should be health sector. That was a great blessing to health sector also and for the poor people. One is called Ardram, that is a health sector. So, we framed our reform plan according to the mission plan, you know, Ardram mission. And we started. That was a very good idea. And now, when I look back or when I remember all these things back, that was a very good period, you know, that five years is thickly packed activities, we can say so. So many challenges we faced. So many challenges, two devastating floods and the hurricane called Doki, Nipah virus attack and COVID virus attack. It means that we didn't give up the plan here. We have reforms in every sector of health. We converted the primary health system to family health system. Actually, we have a very good discussion. We had a very good discussion in SLSRC and we made a model plan for a primary health centre in Kerala. So, we made a master plan and we decided that when a patient enters into a hospital, in front of the hospital, there should be a very good garden. And when a patient enters inside, there should be a very good reception, very good chairs. We insisted that there are four chairs to be there. That kind of a very comfortable chair and LED presentation should be there in the world. Very neat toilets, modern toilets for women, children and different labels. And this way we framed a target, but each institution should have 50 lakhs, two, two and a half crores to build it. Some places only a little bit renovation and we should provide the equipments. Some places we should demolish the building and build a new one. And we started that revolutionary work. My period, more than 400 hospitals become these family health centres. Now it is going on. It is going on. And we reform the Talu hospitals. Very congested buildings were there. We demolished some old buildings and build a new one. For medical college, we made master plan for from 500 crores to 800 crores like that. And it is working. I think after 3 or 4 years, Kerala's infrastructure, public health infrastructure, it will become fantastic. It is going on. And you talked about the conversion of primary health centres to family health centres. A major role, a major responsibility to do this was also played by the people. The government, the health minister, you mobilised people to raise funds and to carry out efforts which led to this conversion. Can you talk about this, how this was carried out? It was a very good teamwork. Building team inside health sector and outside the society also. We cannot work alone because we were getting a major amount from the central government for the health sector. The central government is spending only 2% of the GDP in the health sector. We are getting that amount. We can utilise that money in some sector. But we have to mobilise resources from the society itself. Chief minister said that your work should be people-centered and collectively you should do that. You should inform people and you should mobilise people. It should be a people-centered work. And when we started building this primary health centre to family health centre, we were getting a little bit money from government because we are getting money from Kifbe for the major hospitals. But we have to work this our own. And our department had only little funds. And at that time I discussed with the local self-government, local self-minister. The first part, KTGD was there. And then he changed and he became education minister. And AC Mohidin became the local self-minister, panchayat minister. And we discussed it together. And we called all the panchayat presidents batch by batch called Intervandrum with the medical officers there. A mission means there should be the need of a group of people's work, a team work. We are going to the society. Please convene a meeting in your place, in your panchayat, calling all the interested people nearby. And you explain our mission to them. And we have this much of money. And you should also give some money for us, some services. The panchayat, they have some project. They decided to put some project on health. And they are giving some money for that, some 25 lakhs to 50 lakhs panchayat can give. The concerned MLA, a member of Registrative Assembly, they can give fund from their fund also. We have some MLA SDF fund there. And so many people came forward to help us. It is continued, I think. So, when the Nipah virus struck, how prepared was the government? And what was the response? Yes, it was a cruel thing, Nipah virus. And I didn't heard or I didn't noticed this virus before. Maybe heard about that when we read something. But I didn't even imagine that this virus will come to our place. And when I understand it is Nipah virus called a village called Chandru. And T.P. Ramakrishna, the then minister for exercise and work was the MLA there. He called me before some days and said, teacher, something peculiar is happening here. In a family, four people caught some kind of fever, cough, etc. and one died in medical college. The other three are struggling for health, for life. And something peculiar is there, please come and see what is happening here. At one time I started to go and I called the hospital. The other three were admitted in a private hospital, baby memorial hospital. I called the doctors. They also called me first. Madam, something is happening. We are fearing that this will be a peculiar virus. We said that please send the sample to the virology lab. They send the sample to Manipal lab. I called doctor around the virologist there. He said, Madam, it is something peculiar. We are identifying. I will call you back. When I started co-equal, I mean, it is the way I don't call me. By road, I was going that. He said that it was Nipal. And I asked him, what is the peculiarity of the virus? He said its mortality rate is very high, 70 to 100. There was no medicine. There was no vaccine. It was a very killer virus. It is known as killer virus. Then I become stuck. I thought I am freezing at that time. I become frozen. And after some minutes, I gain my health again. Then they ask, I don't know, doctor, can we fight against it? Yes, definitely we should have to fight. Then I asked, I don't know, please start. You also come to co-equal. I am going directly to that. We have a very good meeting. We discussed everything. We decided to fight against that. First of all, I asked the doctors that if anyone go outside from this village, and they were with the virus, because the incubation day date is 40 days, you know, incubation period. If anyone got a virus at once, it will not come. The symptoms will not come outside. After four days, five days or even after 13 days, the symptoms will come. And at that time, the media men said, minister, all the people are packing up and going to other places from Chengru. We were frightened to hear in that. Next morning, we want to go there. We decided to go there. When I decided, I said, I will go there and I will directly inform the people about the government's decision. All the time, I was discussing with chief minister. And chief minister said, you do everything that you want there to contain these things. We can protect the people. We will supply everything for the people. And I got the freedom and I got the courage to do these things there. And the collector was there, very supportive collector in Kori Kori, that juice. But the doctor said, madam, you cannot go. If the captain fell down first, everything will end. The war will end. We will be defeated at that time. I said, no, this is not such kind of a war. People will not obey you if you ask them to stand there. I should have to declare some government declarations also. So, I am going. Minister T. P. Ramachan also come with me. And we went there, we laid the very next day. And we asked them into a peculiar virus is spreading. We cannot go outside. You should stay here. We will provide everything. Even if you want a toothbrush or toothpaste, rice or pulses, anything you want, the government will provide you in your doorstep. All the news will come. And if you develop any symptoms within these days, we will take you to the hospital. That way, we stop the movement first. That is the clear-cut method to stop the infectious virus. Whenever it happens, we should close that area and we should contain the propagation or contain the infection of the virus. And that succeeded. And only these 18 people, they got the virus from the index case Sabith and no other person got from others. From the index case, they got 18 caught the virus and 16 died and two survived. And then when COVID struck, did this experience with NIPAA guide your response? Was the preparation beforehand? How did that? Definitely. That was a great experience, the NIPAA incident. I remembered that when I, me and my health secretary and other officials went to medical college, the medical college principal asked me to have some meetings there in Coal Code Medical College because everyone was frightened at that time. And we went to that medical college. I think it is the third day or second day or third day, we went there. But everyone was frightened, you know. Someone is not looking up and one young doctor shouted or he showed his worries. He said that we are ready to tackle the problem, we are ready to work in the isolation ward, but the seniors should have to support us. And we are, once and we are going to die, we decided and we send our family away from our house. And I told them no need to die, you know. We should have to practice the prevention method. You would have to use the PPE, personal protection equipment. You should have training today itself, you know. We have donning and doffing of the personal protection equipment. And you should be brave enough to fight. And at last we all decided these doctors, nurses decided to fight the problem. And they have training the very same night throughout the night they were giving training to wearing PPE, cleaning, everything, very good training. But when COVID came, when I heard the news that the first case we examined who came from Wuhan for COVID positive, I was in Trivandrum at that time. I was conducting a night work at that time. At once I read to the Trishut district, go to the Trishut district. And I mean, it's the way I ask them to convene a meeting as previously. And there were a very good number of health soprens of the hospitals in Trishut district, medical college, HODs and all the officials were assembled. I found some enthusiastic face there. And I asked them, are you ready to fight? Yes, madam, we are ready, no problem. I think they got the enthusiasm from the NIPPA. So, how we fought again? All of them were not participated in the NIPPA incident, you know. But they called the people who participated in NIPPA about the isolation ward protocol and the standard operating procedures, etc. Everyone were aware of that and they were very ready. I thought they got the enthusiasm from the knowledge they got from the deadly virus NIPPA. That helped me also. I am also enthusiastic. Because it was the second time we are facing a difficulty in you know. And of course, the success of, you know, the strategy the government applies is also dependent on how the people respond. In Kerala, we saw cooperation and trust, but in many other places of in or even the world, this was missing. So, how were you able to ensure? Yes, Kerala. I think all of them know that two things are there. One, Kerala is highly educated state, you know. Our literature, this percentage is 100% literature in Kerala, men and women were educated. And I think they can understand the problem easily and they can go. And second thing, Kerala, there is a social attitude in most of the Kerala's people. Not all, we cannot say so, but the joint activity and the volunteer ship, they were ready, you know. When we called for a volunteer corps for COVID-19, COVID-19, we announced in no media, several youngsters, several youth men and women registered in the volunteer corps, you know, COVID brigade. And that kind of attitude was there. Another thing, our government's policy, that is the most important thing. Our government, when we were tackling with this problem, it was our government which declared this is a health emergency first. Our chief minister declared this is a health emergency, you know. After that, central government declared that because it came in Kerala first, the COVID. And also, the chief minister, Pandrayavijan declared 20,000 crore worth package, you know, before this central government's declaration. And that kind of a spontaneous activity that was in Kerala's society and the left government was very pro to this kind of activities, that helped very much. The government's policy and government's people-centered activity helped us very much and our public health system also. One time, the Maharashtra health minister called me and asked me, madam, how are you tackling these things there? Here, the private hospitals are not helping us, you know. In Maharashtra, most of the hospitals were private, government sector is very feeble, you know. They were not helping us, they were deciding the fees according to them and they were exploiting the people actually and they were not ready to give rooms for government, beds for government to admit the poor people. And how is it in Kerala? I told him, our chief minister convened a meeting of the private hospital owners from the very beginning and we appealed them. This is a severe problem. Health emergency is there and also this is a problem we have to tackle together. So, you should have to give some beds from your hospital for isolation boards. The major private hospitals should give 100 beds and the little one, they should have at least 10 or 15 beds. They obeyed and we declared the free treatment towards the fee we decided, not the private hospitals which are, they are not asking us. We will decide the fees and that we will give to the private hospitals and all of them cooperated. That is why we can tackle the problem easily in 2020, you know. 2020 December when we examine, our careless position is, we cannot imagine that only 0.4 percent death and some agencies have a survey on the excess death, they conducted an excess death analysis, fantastic result. 2020, the COVID year, 29 deaths were less than 2019. From 2019, the number of deaths were less than 2019 in 2020, you know. And that happened only five or six places in the world, Vietnam, Cuba, New Zealand, like places and Kerala was there. That was a fantastic result because of the activity, the policy of the government, the joint activity and collective activity of the people, the police, every department. So, the collective work, collective work helped us. And last question I'd like to ask you, you know, the whole focus is this entire time has been on your tenure as health minister, but what has been life like after that and what is, what do you see in your future? Yes, our future means we are working throughout our life, you know. We cannot expect one, anyone could not expect that we can work in the same platform for years, you know. When I was a child, I was working with my grandmother. When I grown up, I came to several committees, women forum and youth friend everywhere. I was working according to their agenda and that possibilities, you know. And when I became MLA, I was working in a constituency and also party work. When I was district committee member of the party, I was concentrating in our district for propagating left ideologies and tackling the problems of the poor, peasants and women, etc. When I became central committee member, my can was become larger, you know, I was working. I became minister and that five year I worked hard and I think I can do or justice to that work and I worked hard, you know. I was enjoying, you know, every time I was suffering, but now I am thinking that I was enjoying that work. So, you know, doing everything and making some result out of that, getting some awards, etc. I enjoyed actually that thing. Even though suffering among all the suffering, there are some points to enjoy, you know, some satisfaction. That is the enjoyment, some satisfaction about our work. Now, again, I went back to the party work, you know. I am now the CPM central committee member. I am going here and there for meetings and conducting committees and giving some study classes or classes and giving some speeches about the secularism, democracy. Now, the situation of our country is very worst, you know. We have to protect our constitution more than anything. We have to protect our country and make it democratic, secular and socialist. The communalist ideology is spreading, not spreading, that is the agenda of the ruling party, you know. But they are not discussing about the people's living condition, whether they have food to eat and what is the condition of the poor people in our country. 30 percent of the people are the severely poor, you know, severely poor. They have nothing to eat one time in a day, you know. In UP and this Bihar it is 28 to 30 percent. But in Kerala it is 0.7 percent. Yet they are conducting their communal agenda, they are propagating their communal agenda in Kerala, shouting to this kind of things and this is a difficult time, you know. So, I think we have to propagate what is real democracy and what is the secularism, why we should have secular, we should have secular society. And now I am working with my party to propagate these ideas in the society. So, I am working, as much as my health allows, I will work for the society wherever I am. And I am not claiming that my work is very fantastic and I am fulfilling everything or I am making the society as my dream that I cannot, you know, because we are living in a capitalist country and we should have the burden of that, their activities should have to suffer. But at least we can get rid of some problems, you know. That is enough work and move forward. There are so many papers coming from behind and they will do the rest. Thank you. Thank you so much for talking to us today. And that's all the time we have. This was our conversation with KK Shelja, the former Health Minister of Kerala and on her recently launched book, My Life as a Comrade. 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