For the last two months, the most shocking death of innocent tribal and Dalit children in the lap of helpless parents continues unabated in the poorest ST and SC dominated district of Malkangiri.
Privately it is being claimed that during the last two months, the death toll has reached more than 300 though the figure shared by the district administration of over 100 is doubtful. A majority of the children who died were girls, while all blocks are affected by the epidemic.
It is estimated that in the past, thousands of children died every year due to ill health, fever, malaria, diarrhoea and many more diseases without proper healthcare facility in the backward district. This is a criminal negligence of the Government in ensuring basic healthcare system and violation of constitutional guaranty of Right to life. It is also failure of Government to protect the marginalised communities and the vulnerable sections which deserve special care and protection. It is most unfortunate that the children are dying at a time when the whole country is engaged in ‘Beti Padhao and Beti Bachao’ campaign and child rights are an international concern of the day.
In a continued helpless and desperate condition, Umesh Madhi, a ten-year- old student of class four from Polkanda Primary School under Sikapali Gram Panchayat wrote a letter to the Prime Minister of India to save the life of the poor Adivasi children dying without food and medicine. He requested the PM to visit his district to see their vulnerable condition. A few days back, Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan visited the area. There are many Government and non-Government agencies which are also visiting the district and filing reports of their observation coming in media and social media to draw Government attention over the issue with hope of timely intervention but nothing has changed to stop the death of children.
The issue of child death has been a matter of worry for many students and activists outside the State and protests were organised at Delhi, Mumbai and many other parts of the country in sympathy and solidarity for the suffering masses of Malkangiri. It is expected that the constitutional bodies such as NCPCR, NHRC, NCST and NCSC should timely intervene in the matter and hold the State accountable. The departments like Health, ST and SC Development, Women and Child Welfare, besides the district administration should be held accountable for negligence in providing service to the children in need.
As per 2011 Census, the STs and SCs constitute more than 80 per cent of the 6.13 lakh total population of the district (23 per cent SCs and 58per cent STs). The district has 1,056 villages in 108 Gram Panchayats under seven blocks with very lower literacy and a favorable sex ratio of 1,028 female per 1,000 male. The district is home to Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTG) such as Koyas, Bonda, Poraja, and Didayai and many other tribal and Dalit communities. The whole of Malkangiri is under the 5th Scheduled area. The district reels under Maoist violence, poor social, health and educational infrastructure, non-implementation of Government schemes and programmes and lack of access of the illiterate and socially backward inhabitants to their constitutional and legal rights and entitlements. But for last 65 years, there has been violation of rights of the people by the State itself. The Ministry of Panchyatiraj, Government of India, ranked Malkangiri in 2006 as one of the country’s 256 most backward districts out of 460.
The State Government officials posted at Malkangiri consider their posting as punishment. A majority of the service providers, mostly non-tribal and outsiders show insignificant commitment for the poor and marginalized in the absence of political will and administrative commitment reflecting the poor implementation of Government schemes and programmes. The political leadership of the whole district belongs to Adivasies as the district is a Scheduled area and all the Sarapanch, Panchayat Samiti Chairperson, Zilla Parisad Chairperson, two MlA and one MP seats are reserved for STs. But Adivasi leadership has always been managed and appropriated by the ruling parties and the assertion for rights and identities has been neglected due to lack of political awareness.
A number of studies by the Government and private organisations have established the fact about poor implementation of the Central Government schemes for the poor, STs, SCs, women and children such as NFSA /PDS, ICDS, Mid-day meal, NREGS, NRHM and programmes of dedicated agencies such as TSP/ITDA, micro projects, Bonda Development Agency, Didayi Development Agency, OTElP and many more special grants for fighting lWE menace. There is also presence of a host of international development agencies and private NGOs for a long time engagement in tribal development. Yet the result is far from satisfactory. There has been huge unemployment, distress migration and chronic hunger in every household as more than 90 per cent of the households are under BPl.
The ST and SC households lack access to productive resources such as land, education and skill to cope with the changing economic context. Poor economic status and backward social and educational condition lead to serious food and malnutrition problem. There are families in extreme poverty condition which eat seed of Badachakunda (cassia tora) and mango kernel. The hamlets are without safe drinking water, sanitation and proper housing.
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, has implemented the National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme for prevention and control of malaria, dengue, kala-azor, chikungunya, Japanese Encephalitis and acute encephalitis syndrome (AES) in affected States since 2006 but the programme covered Malkanagiri rather late.
The State Government has not properly implemented the programme in inaccessible tribal areas. There has been no health related awareness among people. The tribal people prefer traditional method of treatment and still have faith on traditional healers (Jani and Diasari) of the community as they have very limited access to modern heath facilities in their area. The State Government has distributed mosquito nets and coil to very few households to control mosquito bite which is not enough. The Government must pay compensation to the families whose children have died and the farmers who have lost pigs. Health is very much linked to the availability of nutritious food and hygienic environment condition of the locality.
The living condition of the people needs to be changed and there must be separate settlement for cattle and pigs. There is a need for literacy, especially health literacy, among the rural poor along with building basic health-related infrastructure such as drinking water sources, latrine, housing and promotion of personal hygiene and cleanness among women and students in schools. Vaccination must be compulsory for every child and special care and protection of the children is highly required.
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