Human rights report blames M.P. for high child mortality rate

February 20, 2010 07:59 pm | Updated 07:59 pm IST - Bhopal

A malnourished child in Madhya Pradesh.

A malnourished child in Madhya Pradesh.

Madhya Pradesh is the one of the biggest contributors to neo-natal and child mortality in the world, says a report presented to the UN Human Rights Council.

The report given by the Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC), a human rights organization with a General Consultative status with the United Nations’ Economic and Social Council, has pointed out conditions of mass deprivation, especially hunger, malnutrition and distress migration, in Madhya Pradesh in its country report on India.

Expressing concerns over the right to food situation in India, the report points out the shocking state of affairs in Madhya Pradesh regarding several human development indicators, especially malnutrition among tribals.

Laying special emphasis on tribal communities, the report states that the mortality rate among children under the age of five in the State’s tribal community is far higher than the State and national average.

The chance of survival of a tribal child is low, with 71.4% tribal children being malnourished and 82.5% children being anaemic, says the report. The report points out that in the last three months, 43 children including have died of malnutrition in three tribal villages in Madhya Pradesh.

Since 2009, the ALRC and its sister organization, the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC, have been reporting on the situation of child malnutrition and its causes focusing on four tribal districts – Khandwa, Rewa, Sidhi, and Jhabua in Madhya Pradesh.

Taking on the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS), the report brings out the centre-state mismatch in the number of Below Poverty Line (BPL) families in Madhya Pradesh. The Central Government has identified only 4.2 million BPL families against the state's claim of 6.5 million in Madhya Pradesh. Due to this reason, 200,000 families in Madhya Pradesh are denied BPL status.

The report states that while 67 per cent of the people in Madhya Pradesh live below the poverty line, 60 per cent of the children are undernourished and 73.9 per cent of tribal women are anaemic, the budget for health services accounts for merely 2.4 per cent out of total State budget.

“One bed is available for every 2,425 persons in hospitals, and more than 1300 out of 5005 doctor posts remain vacant. Although child malnutrition has increased over the last five years, not one Primary Health Centre has been built and 1,659 out of 4,708 medical officer posts remain vacant at the Centers,” says the report.

Madhya Pradesh has repeatedly been in news for severe acute malnutrition among children and other distress conditions like loss of livelihood and cases of human rights violation. The Hindu has reported high incidence of malnutrition and deaths caused by it over the past six months, primarily from the Jhabua, Rewa and Khandwa districts of the state.

The National Family Health Survey –III (NFHS) has also brought out the grim public health situation in the state. According to the NFHS-III, 60 per cent of the children in the 0-3 years category in Madhya Pradesh are malnourished, with 82.6 per cent children in the same age group being anaemic.

The Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) in the State stands at 70/1,000, while IMR for tribal areas is 95.6/1,000.

The less than satisfactory functioning of the state Women and Child Development Department (WCD), visible in the poor performance of Anganwadi Centres (AWCs) in addressing malnutrition in rural areas, has only aggravated the problem.

The Nutrition Rehabilitation Centres (NRCs) in the state, run with technical assistance from UNICEF, are plagued with problems like staff shortage and infrastructural lags, making them ill-equipped to fight the problem of rural malnutrition.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.