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Mumbai records death by malnutrition in Aarey

If you think malnutrition deaths are confined to back-of-beyond rural areas, think again.

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State health officials say the phenomenon is ‘common’

MUMBAI: If you think malnutrition deaths are confined to back-of-beyond rural areas, think again. On Friday, state health officials confirmed that malnutrition had killed a six-month-old in Goregaon’s Aarey Milk Colony. The family lives in one of the colony’s 27 tribal settlements. State health officials also confirmed two additional cases of malnutrition, terming the phenomenon as “common”.

Twins Rohit and Rohini, all of seven months old, were certified as “severely malnourished” by a Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) medical officer Mahadev Kamble.

“These children are severely malnourished and anaemic, suffering from vomiting and diarrhoea. They need to be rushed to hospital immediately,” he said, adding that they looked like cases of Grade II malnutrition (about 60 per cent of ideal weight, see box).

The six-month-old child who died of ‘suspected malnutrition’ last Tuesday was living in Kultipara, a settlement within the leafy Aarey area. Social activists allege that there are at least two cases of malnutrition in each of the 27 tribal
settlements.

Statistics relating to the state-run Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) suggest that there were 14 children suffering from Grade III and IV malnutrition (acute under- nutrition) in the Aarey Colony area. Taking Mumbai as a whole, a total of 501 children are said to be in Grades III and IV of under-nutrition as of May.

The director of health services, Prakash Doke, told DNA: “Malnutrition cases from the tribal pockets of Aarey are reported quite often.” Asked what the state was doing about it, he said: “We are thinking of long term solutions like setting up more aanganwadis to provide supplementary food to these children.” He admitted that in the near term the state can only ensure that undernourished children are hospitalised.

Rohit’s father Risha Gohrat, a daily wage labourer, earns Rs70-100 a day and sustains a family of seven. Ironically, Gohrat was not too keen on taking the twins to the doctor either. He claimed that to reach the closest hospital from his place he would have had to spend about Rs30. “I cannot afford to go there or even spend money to buy medicine. Else, we have to go without food for that day.”

His next door neighbour Litu Shingare’s one-year-old son Mangesh has also been suffering from diarrhoea and fever for the last one month. “Local doctors say he is malnourished but I cannot afford to take him to a big hospital”. So he has resorted to self-medication.  

“At times, the state-run Aarey Hospital shoos away patients as soon as they realise they are malnourished,” alleges Ashok Khandvi, president of the Shramik Mukti Sangh of Aarey.

Acute poverty and lack of work has driven many families towards malnutrition in the past, added Khandvi.

As for solutions, Doke explains how they are working on an arrangement with the BMC to empower doctors at health posts to go and check for malnourishment on a routine basis. Health minister Vimaltai Mundada could not be reached for comments by DNA despite several attempts.

Nutritional status in Maharashtra
Districts       Grade I     Grade II Grade III & IV
Ahmednagar 1,43,613   24,267     795
Amravati       77,224       27,907   1,841
Aurangabad  99,726       8,112      364
Beed             87,962       6,490      185
Gadchiroli    46,229        15,281    1,195
Mumbai       87,900        46,076    510
Yavatmal     1,02,981     37,835     1,589
Sangli          54,697        7,299       158
Nagpur       89,874          25,228     624

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