Miscarriages and neonatal mortality continue to stalk the tribal hamlets of Attappady in Palakkad district despite Rs.500 crore being pumped into the region by the Union and the State governments to fight poverty and malnutrition, apart from creating employment and improving living standards.
As per data available with the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), since January this year 20 tribal women in the region have had miscarriages during the last stage of pregnancy, while seven cases of neonatal mortality have been reported during the same period. A total of 37 child deaths owing to poverty and malnutrition have been reported since January last year.
These incidents come a time when the Health Department and the NRHM are claiming to ensure health care at the doorstep of each tribal family.
A recent review meeting witnessed angry reactions from top officials, who blamed the lack of coordination among health workers at the grass-roots level for the increasing number of miscarriages and child deaths.
It was recently that an NRHM survey found that 572 children below the age of five in the tribal belt remained malnourished. It also found that the condition of 127 of these 572 children was extremely serious, and the rest were in the high-risk group, requiring immediate attention. Sources in the mission said the recent death of a six-month-old boy, without getting proper treatment, in the vicinity of the tribal specialty hospital at Kottathara had been taken seriously by the mission as the local people were accusing the hospital authorities of gross negligence in attending to tribal patients.
There were allegations that despite having better facilities, the tribal hospital functioned as a referral one, sending patients to far away private hospitals in Mannarkkad and Coimbatore.
Most tribal women here are anaemic despite the Health Department’s claims that the condition of all tribal people in the region is being monitored weekly.
Attappady has 10,000 tribal families belonging to the Irula, Muduga, and Kurumba tribes, living in 192 ‘oorus’ (settlements) scattered in three panchayats. The recent transfer of Integrated Tribal Development Project officer P.V. Radhakrishnan and police liaison officer Krishnankutty has affected effective monitoring of the government schemes, local people say.