Times of India: Nagpur: Wednesday, August 19, 2020.
Despite being the most progressive
state of the country, children’s deaths continue to haunt Maharashtra since the
last few years primarily due to malnutrition in areas like Vidarbha’s Melghat
and Mumbai’s Palghar.
An RTI information sought by activist
Abhay Kolarkar has revealed that 34,472 children deaths had taken place in
one-and-a-half years from January 1, 2019 to May 31 this year. In the same
period, 1,926 mothers have succumbed to death during deliveries.
The Pune-based State Family Welfare
Bureau replied that its offices across the state registered deaths of 22,280
infants, 8,773 still born and 3,419 children between one and five years o age.
In the same period, over 10 lakh boys and nine lakh girls were born.
To another query, the bureau informed
that over 93 lakh children births were registered in the last five-and-a-half
years from January 1, 2015 to May 31 this year. It included 48,37,499 boys and
44,66,101 girls.
According to Kolarkar, the Covid-19
pandemic has badly exposed Maharashtra’s crumbling health care sector which led
the government to work on a war footing. However, it never paid any attention
towards children’s deaths, particularly in backward areas like Melghat,
Gadchiroli and Palghar, which led to high mortality rates.
Quoting his earlier RTI reply, the
veteran activist said that despite being India’s financial capital, Mumbai had
recorded the largest number of stillbirths and maternal deaths two years back.
Even cities like Pune, Thane and Nashik had witnessed large numbers of
children’s deaths during that time, as per data supplied by the bureau.
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