Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Wednesday said it’s a sad state of affairs that 443 million people in the country are children, 50% of whom are below poverty line, and 18,000 children die every year due to malnutrition. It said any progress and prosperity made by the country, therefore, is meaningless.
A Division Bench comprising Justices V.M. Kanade and P.R. Bora was hearing PILs highlighting the increase in malnutrition cases in interior parts of Maharashtra. One of them draws attention to vacant posts for anaesthetists, gynaecologists and paediatricians and says this adds to the problem.
The court demanded to know the progress made by the core committee on malnutrition, which last met in October 2016. Additional government pleader Neha Bhide informed the Bench that the State government has complied with several orders and powerpoint presentations are ready on the progress and implementation of schemes. The matter will be heard on March 1.
RTI queries have revealed that malnutrition claimed the lives of 17,000 children in the State in 2015-16, including 283 in Melghat alone. According to a report by the State Women and Child Development Department, 500 children die in Melghat on average every year. The area has a population of three lakh. In 2013-14, the number of child deaths rose to 600, and 426 such deaths were reported in 2014-15 in just two administrative blocks.
In the previous hearing, Ms. Bhide provided minutes of the core committee’s meeting, attended by the State Chief Secretary as chairperson and five Principal Secretaries from concerned departments. The committee is tasked with monitoring issues faced by tribals, and implementation of welfare schemes in areas populated by them. The court had called the numbers ‘shocking’ and ‘disturbing’.
