The Maharashtra government on Wednesday told the state assembly that no child has died in the state due to malnutrition in the last one year.
Maharashtra Tribal Welfare Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Vijaykumar Gavit said that according to information received from the Ministry of Women and Child and Public Health, no child has died. district Causes of malnutrition in (District) Maharashtra.
Mr Gavit was responding to a question by Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Dilip Walse-Patil that despite schemes available for tribal women and children, many children are dying due to malnutrition, and officials say they dying because they are premature and weak. , Then he asked, how many children have died due to malnutrition in the state?
In his response, Mr. Gavit said, “As per the information shared by the state health department with my office, no child death due to malnutrition has been reported in the state.”
Leader of Opposition Ajit Pawar objected to the minister’s claims and told the House, “In the last one month, 18 children have died due to malnutrition only in Melghat area in Maharashtra, and the Bombay High Court has called it a serious issue. “
Right to information queries revealed that in 2015-2016, 283 children died in Melghat alone and about 17,000 children across the state due to malnutrition. A report by the State Women and Child Development Department shows that against a population of 3 lakh, an average of 500 children die every year in Melghat. In 2013-14, the death toll of children increased to 600, while in 2014-15, 426 children died in just two blocks of Melghat. This report was placed before the Bombay High Court.
Last month, a division bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Dutta and Justice MS Karnik heard several public interest litigations (PILs) regarding the increase in malnutrition cases in interior parts of Maharashtra, especially in the Melghat region. “The Government of Maharashtra will make every effort to promote the best interest of the tribals in the state,” the bench said.
(with inputs from PTI)