Malnourished Palghar hungers for answers

MIUMBAI: A three-year-old boy cries continuously sitting next to his grandmother as his six siblings loiter around their one-room mud house. No amount of cajoling

MIUMBAI: A three-year-old boy cries continuously sitting next to his grandmother as his six siblings loiter around their one-room mud house. No amount of cajoling can quieten the boy, Manoj Pawar. Weighing just five kilos, a kilo lesser than his one-and-half-year-old younger sibling, Manoj is one the several malnourished children in Palghar district, around 110km from Mumbai. “He does not stand, cannot walk,” says his mother Ranjhana Pawar, 26.

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The Pawar family resides in Bambipada, a tribal settlement in the Jawhar taluka of Palghar, where 28 children suffer from acute malnourishment. Just 30km from Bambipada is Kalamwadi village, where two-and-a half-year old Sagar Wagh died on August 30. Wagh also weighed just about five kilos. His death caused a major stir after his mother Sita Wagh refused to meet tribal minister Vishnu Savara.

Until July 2016, 126 children have died in the district owing to ailments such as low-birth weight, pneumonia, diarrhea and heart ailments. While lack of nourishment continues to be a major problem, locals say tribal settlements are also plagued with social and economic evils such as lack of employment, child marriage, gender inequality, multiple pregnancies in a short span, apathy from local authorities and a lack of maternal and pre-natal care. “Girls as young as 14 get married and have four to five kids by 25,” said Sarita Chaudhari, a local.

Manoj belongs to the Katkari samaj, which locals say is one of the most deprived communities. The Katkaris do not own land. Manoj’s father works as a labourer in Thane and Mumbai .

The plight of other tribes, including Mahadev Kolis, Konkana, Thakurs and Warlis, is similar. Shraddha Shringarpure from Aroehan, an NGO working for the upliftment of the tribes said, “For the past eight years, there has been a spurt in child deaths during monsoon. These are the four months, where both the parents have to work in the fields to meet requirements for the year. So they are unable to tend to their children.” In Mokhada, one of the worst-affected tehsils in Palghar, 75% of the women give birth to children weighing less than 1.5kg. Local authorities say they have seen cases where a newborn weighs around 700g. An official from the Integrated Child Development Services Scheme (ICDS), said mothers don’t breastfeed as they have to work in the fields.

There is also stark government apathy in the villages HT visited. The Jawhar taluka, which consists of 50 gram panchayats, has one 100-bed hospital with one paediatrician. Mokhada, a taluka 28 gram panchayats, has a 30-bed hospital with no paediatrician or gynecologist. Several posts, including those of officers are vacant in ICDS centres. Local authorities are pinning their hopes on the Amrut Aahar Yojana, a government scheme to provide nutritional food to pregnant tribal mothers and children between 0-6 years . But locals say funds are yet to be transferred by the government for tehsils. The state has called for a meeting of the health, tribal and women and child development (WCD) department on Sept 20. Vinita Singhal, commissioner, WCD, said, “We will also visit the areas on Sept 21.”