By IANS,
Bhopal : A Supreme Court panel has reprimanded the Madhya Pradesh government for being negligent towards the health of children, large numbers of whom have died of malnutrition in the past few months.
In a letter written to Chief Secretary R.C. Sahni, two Supreme Court commissioners who monitor the implementation of the food and employment related schemes in the country, have also pointed out the state’s failure to implement these schemes, particularly in districts from where malnutrition deaths have been reported in the past four months.
Besides Satna and Khandwa, where at least 80 deaths have taken place in the past four months, there have been similar reports and complaints from other districts including Chhattarpur, Panna, Rewa, Tikamgarh, Sheopur and Shivpuri as well. “The media reports have been even more grave, reporting even much higher figures – the death of more than 125 children under six years of age in four districts of Madhya Pradesh since May 2008,” the letter, written by N.C. Saxena and Harsh Mander, says.
The reports, the letter states, point out that the four-member committee constituted by the government has also reported malfunctioning of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) and the Public Distribution System (PDS) in the villages they visited and pointed out lack of healthcare facilities in the villages.
The commissioners have observed that in some villages there are no Anganwadi Centres and, where they exist, the Supplementary Nutritional Programme (SNP) provided under the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) is irregular or is not provided at all to the children in the age group of 0-6. In some places, only a sweet is being served to the children for the last few months while take-home rations too are not being provided to adolescents and pregnant and nursing mothers.
Fair Price Shop (FPS), the commissioners have said, do not open daily and in some places they are open only once or twice times a month. This apart, below poverty line (BPL) and Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) beneficiaries are provided lesser foodgrain than the 35 kg they are entitled to.
Many deserving families have been dropped from the BPL list, while many people who are above 65 years of age are denied the old age pension under the Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme the letter says.
There have also been cases of denying work to the people with disabilities, which is against the NREGS Act.
The panel has asked the state government to immediately take steps in districts from where malnutrition deaths have been reported, investigate into the deaths of all the children and send it a report within 15 days.
The state authorities have also been asked to ensure the medical facilities because it would be difficult for malnourished children to consume and absorb food without medical help.
“The severely malnourished children should be taken to the Nutrition Rehabilitation Centres (NRC) and an action taken report in this case should be sent within one month,” the letter says.