WUNRN
INDIA - CHILDREN -
GIRLS DYING FROM MALNUTRITION
India - A malnourished 3-month-old
girl is fed at a rehabilitation center in Shivpuri in Madhya Pradesh.
Photo: Ruth Fremson/The New York Times
According to the Save the Children's statistics, around 3.5 million children die in a year because of malnutrition. In India alone, one million children's lives could be saved every year if they were not malnourished.
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Asian Human Rights Commission - AHRC
Website Link Includes AHRC Suggested
Actions.
INDIA - 23 TRIBAL CHILDREN DIE OF
MALNUTRITION
Sheopur District, Madhya Pradesh
State in Central India - 14 September 2012
The Asian Human Rights Commission
(AHRC) has received information from Sahyog, Support in Development about the
death of 23 children belonging to Sahariya community, a scheduled tribe, of
malnutrition and diseases caused by it within a short span of time.
The AHRC
has also learnt that the local administration was made well aware of the
situation and yet did nothing to save the lives of these children. For example,
Sahyog itself has found 98 children as severally malnourished and 119 as
moderately malnourished in a survey of 450 children it carried out recently.
Further, the sudden deaths witnessed this year are no exception but follow the
trend witnessed over several years of a spate in deaths during the late
monsoons with diarrhea being the immediate precipitating cause in many cases.
CASE
NARRATIVE:
Sheopur District of Madhya Pradesh has recently seen a spate in the deaths of
children from tribal and other underprivileged communities. In just two months
of late Monsoon, August and September, 23 children have died of severe
malnutrition and diseases caused by it; diarroheo and other gastro intenstinal
diseases being the immediate trigger in most of these cases. Sahariya habitat
of Mongiya ka Pura near the Veerpur Tahsil (a revenue division) head quareters
has been particularly hit, though the deaths have taken place in many other
parts of the district. With underreporting of such cases being the dominant
norm in the area, actual situation could be far worse.
The names
of the identified victims are as follows
1. Sanjay s/o Parmal, age 4 years, Veerpur.
2. Parlekh s/o Munshi, age 7 years, Veerpur
3. Jitendra s/o Mahesh, age 6 months, Veerpur
4. Pappu s/o Durgesh, age 6 months, Veerpur
5. Pappi d/o Ramkishor age 6 months, Veerpur
6. Neeraj s/o Bhairu Jataw, age 6 months
7. Pappu s/o Sobaran, 3 months, village Bhampura
8. Parwati d/o Mukesh Jataw, 12 years, village Gawadi,
9. Dilraj s/o Sitaram Adivasi, 5 years, village Bandarhar
10. Vaishnawi d/oRajaram village Khirkhiri
11. Lalaram s/o Sriram, 3 years, village Lahrauni
12. Ritu d/o Dalveer, 1 year, village Peeparani
13. Dharmendra s/o Lallu, 1 year, village Peeprani
14. Reena d/o Birbal, 5 years, village Semalda
15. Indal s/o ranveer, 1 year, village Semalda
16. Doya d/o Babulal , 6 years, village Kitrana Sahrana Karahal
17. A 12 year old in village Fulda
18. Krishna s/o Shrilal Adivasi, Sheopur
19. Ankit s/o Giriraj, 4 months, Sheopur
20. Rachna d/o Attar Singh, 10 years, village Damraun Kala, District Shivpuri
21. JayShree d/o Vijayram, 12 years, village Damraun Kala District Shivpuri
22. Kanchan d/o Hariram, 12 years, village Kalauthara, District Shivpuri
23. Sanjay s/o Raghuveer, Shivpuri
Primary
reason behind these deaths is the near total collapse of the welfare schemes,
particularly Integrated Child Development Scheme responsible for saving the
children from malnutrition in this district. Sahyog has found that most of the
Anganwadi centers are hardly functioning. The anganwadi staffs have been
reported to go to their respective centers only once a week, whereas a few
reportedly attended to their duties even less.
Such gross
dereliction of duty in an area with rather high incidence of anaemia and
malnutrition even among women is bound to result in such catastrophe year after
year. The district has reported similar flurry in deaths due to malnutrition
during late monsoons almost every year since 2005. AHRC has a list of the
children that perished to the disease for several of these years. Not making
any intervention to save these children is not merely an act of omission, or
negligene, it is almost a criminal failure of the state machinery in
implementing the welfare schemes aimed at protecting Indian children.