Who wants to work in tribal areas?

Of the 20,000 posts of officers, employees and teachers in the tribal development department, approximately 5,000 are lying vacant across the state, as per the statistics available on the Tribal Development Department website.

Most of the vacant posts are in the interiors of the 16 tribal concentrated districts, which are grossly underdeveloped, paralysing the implementation of the welfare schemes and integrated tribal development projects (ITDPs). "Even tribal quota employees and doctors refuse to serve in tribal areas," a top Mantralaya official said.

Tough and isolated life in hilly and forest areas, and lack of modern facilities and schools have been cited as prime reasons for officials' reluctance. Perhaps because of such reluctance by bureaucracy and lower staff, these areas are still underdeveloped.

Palghar has two ITDPs – at Jawhar and at Dahanu – both looking after four talukas each. In Jawhar project area, where more than 200 kids die due to malnutrition every year, over 40% posts in the tribal department are lying vacant. To make matter worse, project officer Babasaheb Pardhe has been borrowed from the revenue department. As six months of Pardhe's deputation are coming to an end, he is set to return to his original department and will be posted in suburban Mumbai.

Other departments that directly deal with the tribal population and have largest network in these areas are Women and Child Development (WCD) Department and Health Department. Staff crunch is a perennial issue for them, with 30-90% sanctioned posts remaining unfilled across 16 tribal districts.

While WCD, through child development project officers (CDPOs) and aangwwadis, have been entrusted to provide free, nutritious meal once a day to women and children below six years of age, primary healthcare Centres (PHC) and hospitals are supposed to assess children's health, immunise them from time to time and give healthcare services, free of cost.

"Two out of four doctors' posts are vacant here," said Dr Mahesh Patil, in-charge medical superintendent of Mokhada rural hospital. Almost all rural hospitals are understaffed, even as their child treatment centres are getting a larger number of patients since last week, due to media pressure.

With 12 out of 13 posts of CDPOs also vacant, one can imagine how welfare schemes for tribals are being implemented through aanganwadis in Palghar.

"Melghat and other tribal areas of Maharashtra have similar stories. Nobody wants to work in these areas," said Bandya, an activist from Melghat. "Those who are posted are forced to share the workload of vacant posts without any incentive, which further demoralises them," added activists.

2-yr bid to hire paediatricians a failure

Maharashtra's health department has been trying to hire paediatricians for Palghar for the last two years, but to no avail. Responding to dna report dated September 19 (Where 500 kids die a year, there is only 1 paediatrician), the department stated, "In these four blocks (Jawhar, Mokhada, Vikramgad and Wada), it is true that actually only one paediatrician has been posted at the sub-district hospital in Jawhar. In the last two years, we have tried to fill the vacant posts but nobody is ready to join. Even the minister and deputy director of health services are trying to get local specialists, but there has been no response."

The department also claimed that three paediatricians and four gynecologists have been appointed on contractual basis in the Jawhar project areas, which serve at 21 primary health centres. Incidentally, Palghar is such a tough area that each PHC is at least 5-10 km away, making it impossible for any doctor to cover more than one PHC a day. How do three child specialists cover 21 PHCs then? "They visit one PHC once in a fortnight," said deputy director of health, Thane.

The department also provided statistics of four blocks under the Jawhar Tribal project, claiming that 263 and 246 kids have died in 2014-15 and 2015-16, and not 500 kids a year, as reported by dna.