The Maharashtra government had formed a task force comprising top officials of the tribal welfare, women and child welfare, and health departments for better co-ordination to control malnutrition and infant mortality in the state. But the situation remains a worry on the ground. Government data states that 21,985 child deaths were reported in the state in 2015-16, of which 17,944 were infants. From April 2016 to August 2016, Maharashtra registered 9,563 deaths of children, of which 7,868 were infants.
According to the leader of the Opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil, “The governor had to intervene in the matter. The CM has failed to take cognisance of this issue. The 16 tribal districts are helpless in the absence of infrastructure, and the government has failed to take the required action to tackle this problem.”
The Bombay high court, too, had rapped the government in September this year after a reply to an RTI query revealed there were 17,000 deaths due to malnutrition in the state in the past year.
Meanwhile, state women and child development minister Pankaja Munde refused to admit that malnutrition deaths were on the rise in Maharashtra’s tribal belts when the subject was brought up in the Assembly in December.
