At Mendha Lekha in Dhanora tehsil of Gadchiroli district, Kanshiram Madavi nods silently as his mother recalls how her grand-daughters died. A farm labourer, Kanshiram’s second daughter died two years ago. Last May, another daughter was born to him but she did not survive even a day. Numbed by their deaths, Kanshiram cannot even remember how they died. His answer to any question is a blank stare. Kanshiram is just one of the desolate faces in tribal Gadchiroli, which has seen a large number of child deaths — all allegedly triggered by malnutrition — in the recent past. Till February this year, the district recorded 17,838 live births and 896 deaths upto one year of age and 160 between 1-5 years, besides about 500 still births. At Mendha Lekha, Maniram Madavi is slowly getting his life back on track. Last September, he lost his five-month-old son Ankush. The child was very weak and battled diarrhoea and high fever for over a month. Maniram took him to a doctor at Dhanora, the tehsil headquarters a few km away, but eventually settled for Bhumka, the traditional healer. That just didn’t work. At Kupaner village, 16-year-old Lalita Narote is a picture of desolation. When she was barely 14, she became a gharghushi, a girl who barges into her fiance’s house and starts living with him—an accepted tribal custom. But her days of happiness were numbered. Her first child, a son, died two years ago. A second son was born to her last September. But her happiness proved to be shortlived again. Two months later, the child died. The immediate cause was pneumonia but malnutrition is perhaps the main suspect. Shamrao Atla from Mendha has three daughters and three sons. The youngest, Pratima, suffers from stunted growth. Reason: malnutrition. She was born blind and is now underweight. A doctor has diagnosed her with a brain-related syndrome. With six children to look after, all Shamrao can spare for his last-born is a tonic dished out by a government nurse from a public health centre five km away. Earlier this month, Shiv Sena MLA Vijay Wadettiwar alleged the district suffered malnutrition on an epidemic scale. The government denied it, claiming that the 1,400 deaths in the year so far were due to various medical reasons, of which low birth weight was just one. An independent study conducted by a group of 13 NGOs in 2001 exposed the government’s under-reporting on child deaths. The report was accepted by then Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh. But not much has changed since then, though District Collector Anil Kale denies that there is any cause for alarm. ‘‘Our attempt has been to report correctly. The correct figures are already there,’’ he claims. District Health Officer B S Bansod, too, says his team is making an all-out effort to check child deaths. ‘‘Malnutrition cases are on the decline. We are trying to increase institutionalised deliveries and are taking extra care of the new-born,’’ he says. His efforts appear rather weak considering more than 95 per cent babies are still delivered at home. There are also allegations of irregularities in the special incentive scheme for new mothers. Many women claim they haven’t got medicines and the money promised to them under this scheme. On paper, Gadchiroli appears pretty well-equipped so far as health-care is concerned. There are 45 public health centres, 372 sub-centres and 12 rural hospitals with a total of 144 doctors and 427 nurses. But department officials say they need at least 26 more doctors and 48 nurses. There are 70 vacancies of male multipurpose health workers (MPW). Many health centres are lying defunct for the past many years. The one at Girola, built 10 years ago, for instance, serves no purpose other than being an ideal hideout for anti-social elements. Early marriages are also a problem area. ‘‘Such girls are unfit to bear a child,’’ says DHO Bansod. Sixteen-year-old Lalita Narote who lost her second child recently is a case in point. Then there are times when a girl child is dumped simply because she is not wanted. At Kupaner, villagers narrate how a family starved a one-month girl after her mother’s death. As summer approaches in the third consecutive drought year, the fate of Gadchiroli’s children looks even more grim. And the state administration appears totally unprepared.
