With Odisha accounting for 36 per cent of all malaria deaths in the country, the Mo Mashari scheme with a provision of Rs90 crore seems to have gone awry. Under the scheme, long lasting Insecticidal Nets (llIN) are to be distributed to protect pregnant women against malaria infection, but the sum of money earmarked for it could not be spent by the State Health Department.
As per data available, cases of malaria infected people in the State, which stood at 2.28 lakh in 2013-14, jumped nearly two-fold to reach 3.95 lakh in 2014-15, primarily, though not entirely, due to the failure of the scheme. On the other hand, the Health Department statistics reveal that after a steady fall for three years, malaria deaths have started rising again. The statistics reveal that as many as 100 people died of the infection in 2011, 79 in 2012 and 67 in 2013. However, the toll took a big upward leap in 2014 with 89 deaths.
An official of the Health Department, on condition of anonymity, admitted that the department has not distributed mosquito nets during 2014-15. The Centre too has stopped providing mosquito nets. Though the department has decided to utilise last financial year’s fund during 2015-16, it has no information available with it on the tendering process and procurement of nets.
To everybody’s surprise, the department had not supplied mosquito nets for 2012-13 and 2013-14 either. The department had distributed a few nets in Koraput. During that time, it had given a clarification that the Centre had not supplied the stocks, the official said.
Recently, Union Health Minister had informed the lok Sabha that despite Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh being malaria-prone States, they have fared well in controlling the spread of the disease. Eighty per cent of malaria deaths are reported from tribal dominated districts in Odisha. The most cases of malaria deaths are reported from Malkangiri, Gajapati, Kalahandi, Kandhamal, Keonjhar, Koraput, Mayurbhanj, Nuapada, Rayagada and Sundargarh districts, the Minister had said.
It may be mentioned that Mo Mashari was launched in November 2009 as a programme to protect pregnant women against malaria through distribution of llIN. Initially, five districts with high malaria burdens were targeted in a pilot period from March 2010 to March 2011, which was expanded to a further two districts in 2012.