‘File report on ill-fed children in Varanasi’

Respond to malnourishment charge in 2 weeks: HC to officials

Malnutrition cases in a block in Varanasi have been neglected, the petition says. Photo shows a boy hospitalised in Allahabad in June 2016.

The Allahabad High Court has directed the Varanasi administration to file its response to allegations that government departments in a particular block of the district were neglecting malnourished children and not providing them nutrition as per norms.

The court has directed Varanasi District Magistrate Yogeshwar Ram Mishra to file a counter affidavit in the matter in two weeks.

A Division Bench of Justices Arun Tandon and Ashok Kumar passed the order on June 20, acting on a Public Interest Litigation petition filed by a local NGO, Jan Adhikar Manch.

The petition alleged that the State Child Development and Nutrition department was not providing malnourished children with their daily required minimum nutrition as per government orders and that it, along with the health department, was rooted in corruption.

It cited news items, which reported instances of acute malnutrition in children in the district. The NGO was, however, not satisfied with the administration’s figures, and constituted a fact-finding team, which visited five villages in Varanasi’s Harhua block and found 22 children to be malnourished and their body weight much below WHO norms. The team claimed that the malnourished children were not being provided the minimum nutrition.

‘Order violated’

“There is clear violation of a government order issued in August 2016 by the Directorate of Child Development Services and Nutrition, under which a malnourished child is be to provided at least one meal daily and with 20 gm of desi ghee in it,” said Anil Kumar Mourya, convener, Jan Adhikar Manch.

Among the 22 malnourished children identified by the NGO in five villages — Daniyalpur, Pisaur, Bhaktupur, Bhatauli and Dasepur — a majority, 19, belonged to the Dalit community (11 Jatavs and eight Musahars), while two are Muslims and one is a Rajbhar (OBC).

In the petition, the NGO said that it brought the matter to the attention of the district administration but no action had been taken despite several applications. Hence, it moved court.

Mr. Mourya claimed the government was trying to underplay the number of malnourished children. “The government claims that in the entire Harhua block, consisting of 85 villages, 45 cases of malnourishment were reported. But in our survey, in just five villages we found 22 cases,” he said.

The court has listed the matter for July 4. The Varanasi District Magistrate was not available for comment.