Four malnourished children died in Rewa district

BHOPAL: Last month the state government was rattled by reports of deaths due to malnourishment in Sheopur. Now four deaths of

malnourished children

have been reported from Rewa district, one of them died on October 12. Three of them are girls.

During the last three months, four severely

malnourished

children died in

Dabhoura Basti of Jawa

block, about 70 kms away from district headquarter of Rewa. All of them were

children

of Kol tribals, inhabitants of Rewa and Satna districts in Vindhya region.

Chief medical and health officer SK Tripathi confirmed the deaths. Talking to TOI , he said, “ about 15 severely malnourished children are also admitted at nutritious rehabilitation centres of Tyothar and Rewa district hospital.”

Ajit, 2 months, Antima 17 months, Kajal 18 months and Anchal 15 months died in Dabhoura Basti. There are five severely malnourished children – Sudhir, Raj ,Monu, Ansh and Sumitra - who have been struggling for life , said Arvind Mishra , social activist associated with

Samaj Adhikar Chetna Manch

, an organisation working for the past many years said.

He has been working for the past many years for woman and child development issue in

Madhya Pradesh

. For the last few months Mishra has been working in Rewa’s Daboura basti.

“All the four children who died in Dhabhoura had also been admitted at the nutritious rehabilitation centre of district hospital of Rewa. Ajit who died yesterday was also admitted at the NRC but his mother ran away with Ajit when his treatment was still on”, Mishra said.

There was no food cooked at the Anganwadi Number 1 of Daboura basti on May, June and July. The food was cooked only for 10 days in August and 16 days in September. Till Thursday, food has not been cooked in October”, Ram Narayan Yadav of Samaj Adhikar Chetna Manch said.

Large number of deaths related to malnourishment were reported from Sheopur district last month. Health minister Rustam Singh had “admitted 8 to 10 deaths from March-April to September”. He had visited several villages of Saharia tribes dominated population in Sheopur.

The chief medical and health officer (CMHO) Dr RP Saral was also removed last week because of deaths related to malnourishment in the district.