The Hindu : National : A tragedy beyond numbers

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jul 07, 2004

National

National

A tragedy beyond numbers

By Meena Menon

— Photo: Vivek Bendre

An 11-month-old boy suffering from severe malnourishment, with his mother, Fulbai, in a civil hospital in Dharni in Melghat.

DHARNI (MAHARASHTRA), JULY 6. An 11-month-old boy admitted for severe malnutrition at the upgraded rural hospital in Dharni, has blisters all over his bony chest.

His mother, Janu, from Lavada village nearby, says he has been ill for several days but she could not bring him to the hospital as she works as a daily wage labourer.

"The boy was breathless and weak and so I took him to our local healer who did damma for him," says Janu. Damma is a custom among the Korku Adivasis who live here. The sharp end of the sickle is heated till it is red hot and applied on the painful parts. For this infant, who weighs only four kilos, it was his chest where the hot sickle was applied. It did nothing to improve his critical condition.

On another bed, two-and-a-half-year-old Sheela was ill for a week before she was brought here. Her mother, Phulbai, has three other children whom she cannot leave behind. She is impatient to get home. In June alone, 77 cases of malnutrition were treated at this hospital. Two of them died, says Dr. Phulchand Jamkar, medical officer.

The hospital, which has been spruced up at a cost of a few crores, does not have a permanent paediatrician or a gynaecologist. Officials say that during the monsoon months, child specialists and gynaecologists are sent here on deputation for 15 days at a time. Despite there being permanent posts sanctioned for these doctors, about seven posts are not filled. There is no anaesthetist, X-ray technician or a physician either.

From April to June 2004, 86 children died in both Dharni and Chikaldhara talukas of Amravati district, called the Melghat region. Every year, at least 500 children die of malnutrition related causes, according to official records. The State Government has reported that 9,000 children died since April 2003 in 15 tribal districts of the State. But the tragedy does not lie in the numbers alone.

In Baspani village, 3 km away from Dharni, six children are severely malnourished and five children have died since April. Beinu Kasdekar's youngest child, six-month-old Monica, died of double pneumonia on June 16. "She had fever for eight days, but by the time I took her to a private doctor in Dharni, she had double pneumonia. I don't like the government hospital as my first-born died there," says Beinu.

In Bothra village, 30 km from Dharni, teenaged Mira Sawalkar lost her baby about a fortnight ago. Like other women in her village, she delivered the child at home.

The girl was born in the eighth month and was alive and well for two to three hours. "I don't know how it happened," says a distraught Mira. The nearest Primary Health Centre is 10 km away at Harisal, and people usually walk there.

In the same village in May, Mira Jambhekar delivered her first child, a girl who developed fever soon after and died within 15 days. As there was no trained midwife for the delivery, one of her relatives assisted her.

"The baby had fever and boils in the mouth and she stopped feeding," says Mira Jambhekar. "How can I take a small child to Harisal? It is so far away and I thought she will get better." There is a multipurpose health worker (MPW) in the village but Mira Jambhekar says, "I have to keep searching for him. He is drunk or not there most of the time."

However, the MPW, Gajanan Gudade, does not think these deaths are serious. "If people call me, only then I will know there is a problem. How am I to guess children are sick?"

Dr. Ravi Kolhe, part of the Government-appointed committee to control child deaths, says many changes have taken place after the Bombay High Court directives in 1997 to improve health services in the area.

The budgets are higher, there are more vehicles and mobile units and universal immunisation has been implemented.

Although the number of child deaths has come down, the overall socio-economic condition of the Adivasis has not changed.

Dr. Kolhe also acknowledges that the Government has failed to convince people to use its health care system.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National