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Images of starvation haunt Rajathan village
Sutapa Deb
Wednesday, November 6, 2002 (Baran district, Rajasthan):
A conclave of Congress chief ministers will meet in Mount Abu in Rajasthan from Friday to discuss better governance.
But perhaps the real lessons need to come from Baran in Rajasthan where 12 children have died in the recent months. As more children lie on their deathbeds, the debate on whether it is starvation or malnutrition continues.
A visitor to Aamrod village in Rajasthan’s Baran district cannot escape the images of hunger and deprivation there. Swollen bellies, swollen faces and infants whose muscles have been wasted away…
Nothing to eat
Mamta is three years old but has shrunk to the size of a one-year-old. “She used to walk earlier, but for the last two months she is unable to do so,” says her father.
One-year old infant Guriya was born to a malnourished mother and an ailing father. Her mother tells of their harsh situation. “There is nothing at home. What do I feed her?” she says. And another infant in the village is too weak to move or cry out.
The local health worker and the doctor from the Kasbathana primary health centre who visited Aamrod village to identify victims of malnutrition were faced with a hopeless situation.
How do they deal with parents who do not have five rupees at home to undertake the 120 km journey from Aamrod to the district hospital?
“Some ask us for the return fare, for food to eat. That is not possible for us,” says Sushma, auxiliary nurse.
“We don’t have X-ray facilities here. I referred the case of protein energy malnourishment anemia and acute diarrhoea to the Kelwara CHC. But they too don’t have a pediatrician They referred her to the Baran district hospital. She is back here as she didn’t have money,” adds Dr Rajesh Rajawat, in-charge, Primary Health Centre, Samraniya.
Appalling state
Fourteen kilometres away at the Kelwara CHC, a Kafkaesque situation awaits a visitor.
A grounded ambulance. A lab that had to be shut down because the sole lab assistant was giving wrong reports. An X-ray machine that did not work because of disruptions in the power supply. And a naturally idle staff…
The 30-bed centre had been reduced to 16 rusted beds. But there are no patients. When asked, the CHC in-charge says media reports about malnutrition and disease are grossly exaggerated.
But since poor patients do not exist in the official records, the government machinery can continue to be in a state of denial.