9,459 child deaths in tribal areas in a year

The report showed that despite spending crores of rupees on nutritious meals and other such schemes, 37,292 children died in the last four years in the 16 districts, including Nandurbar, Dule, Jalgaon, Nashik, Thane, Palghar, Chandrapur, Gadchiroli, Bhandara, Gondia, Nagpur, Amravati, Yavatmal, Raigad, Ahmednagar and Pune

Mumbai: As many as 9,459 children have died in tribal areas in 16 districts of the state in the last one year, revealed a government survey. The survey attributed the main cause of the deaths to malnutrition and child marriage.

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The data was shared by the state women and child development department in the legislative council recently.

The report showed that despite spending crores of rupees on nutritious meals and other such schemes, 37,292 children died in the last four years in the 16 districts, including Nandurbar, Dule, Jalgaon, Nashik, Thane, Palghar, Chandrapur, Gadchiroli, Bhandara, Gondia, Nagpur, Amravati, Yavatmal, Raigad, Ahmednagar and Pune.

According to the report, 9,819 child deaths were reported in 2019-20, 8,990 in 2020-21 and 9,024 in 2021-22 and 9,459 between April 2022 and May 2023.

Moreover, the survey revealed that malnutrition is not an issue confined only to remote areas of the state. The survey of the women and child development department revealed that a total 23,040 children in urban and rural parts of Thane district, neighbouring Mumbai, the financial capital of the country, were below average weight, which is a sign of malnutrition.

In another survey conducted in March this year, it was revealed that 1,00,164 children reported weight below average due to malnutrition in six districts of Konkan. In Mumbai, Thane, Raigad, Palghar, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg, the government conducted a weight test of 9,83,583 children and found 8,83,419 children with average weight. There were 88,636 children with medium low weight and 11,528 with very low weight, indicating that malnutrition is still a big issue in several parts of the state.

In a survey conducted in April 2022, it was found that there were 15,253 child marriages in tribal areas across the state.

When asked about the malnutrition issue, an officer from women and child development department said that the government is running various schemes like the Integrated Child Development Services Programme and Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Amrut Ahar scheme etc to ensure nutritious food to children and their mother for proper growth of children in rural, tribal and slum areas.

“Under the Integrated Child Development Services Programme, the government provides fresh and nutritious food to pregnant women and children between the age of 6 months and three years. Under the Kalam Amrut Ahar scheme pregnant women and mothers of newly born babies get one nutritious meal and children from six months to six years get eggs or bananas four days in a week,” the officer said.