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* ** Ignoring India's republic of hunger*
Villager Tulsa says she cannot breast feed 18-month-old Sanju much "because
I have very little milk". Photos: Soutik Biswas
When did baby Richa finally fall silent?
Social workers direct the question about the three-year-old girl to an
extended family living in a mud-and-thatch hut in the bleak landscape of
Jamoda in Madhya Pradesh. It is the country's second biggest state in size
and also one of its poorest.
*[image: Sanju with his mother]*
The workers belong to a group that is raising the issue of chronic hunger
and malnutrition.
"She died recently. She had measles. The quack gave her an injection, but
she did not survive," says Kolai Bai, grandmother of the dead girl,
matter-of-factly. She is now left with six grandchildren.
MADHYA PRADESH
Date of election: 27 November
Counting of votes: 8 December
Total constituencies: 230
Total voters: 36054717
Total candidates: 3179
In these parts, more and more children like Richa are "falling silent"
because of diseases associated with malnutrition and hunger.
But their deaths remain cold statistics; they largely escape the attention
of political parties battling to win the upcoming state elections.
Groups like the Right to Food Campaign insist that malnutrition is chronic
in vast swathes of Madhya Pradesh.
Some 325 children, they say, have died of diarrhoea, measles and acute
respiratory distress - diseases typically associated with severe
malnutrition - in just four districts between May and October this year.
More worryingly, they say, the government is in complete denial.
Authorities blame illegal doctors for making matters worse and say the
children are dying of diseases common elsewhere in India.
[image: Jamoda village]
Children in the tribal countryside suffer from malnutrition most
However, the first India State Hunger Index (Ishi) this year found that
Madhya Pradesh had the most severe level of hunger in India, comparable to
Chad and Ethiopia.
Even federal health surveys show that 60% of children under the age of six
in the state are malnourished - more than 12% of these severely so.
The Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, which rules the state, does
not mention the issue in its manifesto.
The opposition Congress party takes note of it and promises to make Madhya
Pradesh a "malnourishment-free" state if voted into power.
*Life struggle*
Jamoda is one of the 20 villages in Khandwa district where 62 children have
died from diseases associated with severe malnutrition in two months alone -
September and October - according to investigations by an NGO engaged with
the Right to Food Campaign.
[image: A child health community centre in Jamdoba] The derelict child
feeding centres point to the neglect of children
Many other children are struggling to stay healthy and alive.
Eighteen-month-old Sanju Silale is one of them. The boy has bone for arms
and legs and has already lost an eye to measles. He lets out a dull,
incessant cry from his mother's lap.
The mother, Tulsa, says she lost her earlier child, a boy, when he was two
years old. The father, Kamal, is away working on a farm in a neighbouring
district because work is scarce in Jamoda.
"I could not breast feed my boy and he died. These days I cannot breast feed
Sanju much because I have very little milk," Tulsa says.
In the dark recesses of another village hut, one-year-old girl Drupta weighs
merely 2.5kg and coughs incessantly in her mother's arms.
"There's not enough food at home to feed an infant. Parents go out looking
for work, leaving the children at home who end up sharing a roti (Indian
flatbread) between them," says a family member.
*Tribal decline*
Why is there so much hunger and malnutrition in Madhya Pradesh's tribal
countryside?
It is partly to do with the decline of the tribal way of life in India - the
relationship between the animist tribespeople and forests is under threat.
Forests are being denuded and laws prohibit tribespeople from hunting and
freely growing their crops in whatever is left.
[image: A political party flag atop a hut in Jamdoba] The tribespeople
say political parties do little for them
This, say social activists like Prakash Michael, has meant the dietary
habits of tribespeople have changed from indigenous coarse cereals and game
meat to the more "mainstream" mix of rice, bread and vegetables, which they
mostly end up buying from the markets.
With farm incomes stagnating because of soaring prices for fertiliser and
seed -combined with lower prices for crops - there is less money to buy
food. Most families here earn less than 1,000 rupees ($22) a month.
To make matters worse, the state-run "ration shops" selling cheap rice and
wheat as part of India's notoriously fickle and porous "public distribution
system" have cut supplies from 35kg of rice and wheat per family per month
two years ago to 20kg.
That's not all. The shops - essential to feed the poor - open three days a
month these days instead of eight days a month earlier. (Last month,
authorities, reacting to the deaths of children, ordered the local shops to
open every day).
So if you miss going to the shop on the day it opens, you could end up going
without food for a week or more.
"We should give a serious thought to why malnutrition is rife only among the
tribal children in the state," says Prakash Michael.
[image: Drupta with her mother] Baby Drupta weighs merely 2.5kg and coughs
incessantly
Jamoda offers a few grim clues. They point to the marginalisation of
tribespeople in a state where they comprise nearly 20% of the 60 million
population.
Set in a largely parched and stony countryside, it is home to some 450
families of indigenous Korku tribespeople - they comprise 80% of the 130,000
people living in the district's 147 villages.
The nearest government health clinic is 12km (8 miles) away, the nearest
hospital 16km away. Most forests in the neighbourhood have been cut down.
The derelict state child-care centre, run by community workers, points to
India's neglect of its children: the kitchen has no utensils or stove, doors
and windows are missing, the roof is creaky and leaking and the unfinished
floor is covered with stones and crude tiles.
"We give out packed food to 30-40 children here three times a day. We have
no utensils to cook. We have to be careful about children who sit on the
floor because there is no flooring and poisonous insects come out," says the
centre's worker, Sushila Patil.
Many tribal children end up in local hospitals with hunger-related diseases.
"There," a local tribesperson says, "many doctors refuse to treat us because
they find us dirty and smelly."
So who will the people of Jamoda vote for in the upcoming elections - the
lotus (the symbol of the BJP) or the hand (Congress)?
A BJP tribal candidate has been winning elections in the area for the past
few years without any competition, and a few saffron party flags fly weakly
atop some of the huts.
Village elder Budhia Pati says they will vote for the party their neighbours
do. Somebody has even told her that if she votes for Congress she would not
be able to sell firewood any longer.
"Anyway, I will vote for somebody. Does it really matter? Voting for a party
doesn't really bring any gain, does it?," she asks wryly.
Source: BBC 25 Nov 2008
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