800 infants died in two years in Palghar, Maharashtra insists it's not malnourishment

  • | Monday | 19th August, 2019

It may be part of the Mumbai metropolitan region, but Palghar district is where the chasm that separates the underprivileged is most starkly at display. More than 800 infants have vanished into this widening gap in two years. While welfare workers in this region that abuts Mumbai attribute the deaths to malnutrition, the state government claims they occurred due to factors like premature birth, asphyxia and heart ailments. Over the same years, maternal fatalities recorded in the district, carved out of Thane in 2014, was eight and five, respectively. She said that the government had taken a number of measures to check malnutrition and related deaths.

It may be part of the Mumbai metropolitan region, but Palghar district is where the chasm that separates the underprivileged is most starkly at display. More than 800 infants have vanished into this widening gap in two years. While welfare workers in this region that abuts Mumbai attribute the deaths to malnutrition, the state government claims they occurred due to factors like premature birth, asphyxia and heart ailments. In the recent budget session of the state legislature, the government admitted that Palghar, with its significant population of tribals, has seen 469 infants (0-6 years) die in 2017-18 and 348 in 2018-19. Over the same years, maternal fatalities recorded in the district, carved out of Thane in 2014, was eight and five, respectively. The information was part of a written reply by women and child development minister Pankaja Munde to a question by Nationalist Congress Party's Vidya Chavan and others in the legislative council. Similarly, tribal-dominated Melghat in Amravati district saw 268 and 309 infant deaths in 2017-18 and 2018-19, respectively, while maternal deaths were eight and six. "These deaths have not taken place because of malnutrition," said Munde in her reply, while attributing the mortality to low birth weight, premature delivery, birth asphyxia, congenital heart disease, septicemia and other diseases. She said that the government had taken a number of measures to check malnutrition and related deaths. In the reply, Munde said the women and child care department had asked the public health department to take necessary measures to prevent child and infant mortality in Jawhar taluka in Palghar district. The department has also taken measures like doling out take-home rations (THR) for children between six months and three years, pregnant women and lactating mothers; and freshly cooked food for those between three and six years of age. Those between six months and six years are also given eggs or bananas. Gram Balvikas Kendras or Child Welfare Centres have been made operational to take care of children suffering from severe acute malnutrition (SAM) and they are given three extra meals a day. These children are also treated by the public health department staff. Former MLA Vivek Pandit, chairman of the state government's tribal development review committee, said that while the cause of death could be medically attributed to diseases like pneumonia and tuberculosis, the root cause lay in hunger and starvation. "These malnourished children lack immunity, which makes them susceptible to disease. This leads to a high death rate," said Pandit, who heads the Shramjeevi Sanghatana. "Malnutrition is not a medical problem, but a socioeconomic issue... which arises from lack of employment, incomes and facilities like pure drinking water," he said.

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