Times
of India: Thiruvananthapuram: Saturday, 24 January 2015.
Malnutrition
deaths continue to rue Attappadi tribals with one more infant death being
reported on Wednesday night. This is the second infant death this year. Last
year, 59 child deaths were reported, including 37 infants dying during
pregnancy and in 2013, 47 infant deaths were reported, but the government and
various agencies involved are yet to wake up to the reality.
The
government announced a rehabilitation package of Rs 400 crore for Attappadi in
2013 and in addition the three-tier panchayat set apart Rs 1.26 crore to
eradicate malnutrition. But according to RTI information collected by voluntary
agencies, only Rs 40 crore worth schemes have been implemented, said Rajendra
Babu of NGO Thambu.
"We
could have regained the health of tribals by supplying cereals such as Bengal
gram, green gram and lentils through public distribution system, but even that
was not done effectively. Various government departments have failed miserably
in correcting the reality. Malnutrition began since their land was encroached
and they lost their traditional cultivation with nothing left to eat,"
government sources told TOI.
Of the 172
ICDS functioning in Attappadi, 130 have no drinking water facility and 100 ICDS
have no toilets. More than half the Anganwadis are in rented premises and 66
have no toilets. Though a Nutrition Rehabilitation Centre (NRC) is functioning,
of the 238 children admitted to NRC up to Oct 31, 2012, only 38 have returned
to normalcy and 83 children were reported severely malnourished still, Rajendra
Babu told TOI.
This is
despite the fact that in addition to the rehabilitation package, the Centre had
sanctioned Rs 80 crore for Attappadi as part of rural development initiatives
for development of tribal hamlets in Agali, Puthur and Sholayar village
panchayats in Attapadi.
Meanwhile,
the tribal elders informed that the two infants who lost their lives are
ten-month old twin boys of parents Udayakumar and Selvi in Pattimalur tribal
hamlet in Attappadi. Among the twins, the first infant weighing 700 grams died
on Monday and the infant death reported on Thursday was an infant weighing 1200
grams with only 6.9 hp hemoglobin level died at a hospital in Coimbatore. The
child was referred to this hospital after his condition deteriorated at a
hospital in Kottathara. The mother is also malnourished and anemic.