Court takes note of tribal kids’ plight in Yavatmal

MUMBAI: Reacting to the news that more 1.67 lakh tribal children from Yavatmal district were suffering from malnourishment, the Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court on Tuesday directed the state government to file a detailed report.

Expressing serious concern about these reports based on health department’s own surveys supported by independent agencies and non governmental organisations working in these areas, Justice D. D. Sihna and Justice R. C. Chavan took a serious view on “deliberate disobedience of the High Court’s orders” and termed it as “apathy”.

On Tuesday, advocate Firdos Mirza of Vidarbha Janandolan Samiti, which has filed a  PIL in this connection, informed the court about the increasing number of malnourished children. Mirza pointed out that normally malnourished kids are categorised in four grades and those in third and fourth are considered to be critical.

He added that in tribal belts of Yavatmal, 1625 kids were put into Grade III while 142 in Grade IV which means that they could die anytime.