LET’S LEARN FROM THESE KIDS – By Robin Shukla

At a time when deaths due to malnutrition and economic deprivation in Maharashtra’s Palghar district and elsewhere are being hotly discussed in courts, in newspapers and TV channels, and by the state and Central governments, a little known organization named Kshamta, comprising of youngsters studying pharmacy, recently went ahead and took the much needed initiative to do something about the situation.

Before we get to elaborating, it would be significant to note that as recently as on December 6, the Bombay High Court had intervened and requested Pankaja Munde, minister for woman and child development and Vishnu Savara, tribal welfare minister to take personal interest and to monitor the measures being taken to fight the problem of malnutrition in the state. A bench comprising of Justices Vidyasagar Kanade and Nutan Sardesai requested the tribal welfare minister ‘to personally look into the matter and ensure funds reach the people for whom it is earmarked.’

Palghar- A-need-to-bring-more-smiles-like-this
Palghar- A-need-to-bring-more-smiles-like-this

In what can only be interpreted as an indictment, the judges observed, ‘we find that benefits of financial help do not percolate to actual recipients, there are several leakages. They need to be plugged so that the flow of funds reaches tribals in those areas.’

A week later, in a written reply to a calling attention motion in the Maharashtra’s Legislative Assembly in Nagpur, the minister acknowledged that there were 31,548 child and infant deaths between April 2015 and August 2016, though she contended that every child death should not be linked to malnutrition. She also informed that the government had formed a task force under the health minister to tackle the issue and a malnutrition policy had been cleared by the chief minister. Her citing that the infant mortality rate in the state in 2014 was 22 per 1,000 births as against the national average of 39 seems a bit indefensible when the actual figures translate past 30,000 infants and children dead.

Palghar - Education-cannot-succeed-without-care-and-nourishment.-Tribal-kids-with-clothes-books-and-blankets-given-to-them.
Palghar – Education-cannot-succeed-without-care-and-nourishment.-Tribal-kids-with-clothes-books-and-blankets-given-to-them.

NGOs and activists working for upliftment of the disadvantaged masses in tribal belts have for long been complaining about the apathy and lack of coordination between various government agencies and departments entrusted with welfare and development of the region due to which many plans have never been implemented. Noted activist Purnima Upadhyay has said, ‘At the ground level, there are many discrepancies and doctors are not available.’

The following figures published in a leading English daily debunk the Maharashtra government’s claim to being one of the most developed states in the country:
Children suffering from malnutrition in Maharashtra:
Aug 2016 – 6,93,937
Sept 2016 – 7,19,660
Increase    –     25,723

Districts with the most severely malnourished kids in Sept 2016:
Palghar            : 9,137
Nandurbar       : 8,924
Nashik             : 7,463

It must be noted that Palghar is just a couple of hours away from Mumbai, which is listed as a sprawling world-class megapolis on the global map and is touted by the state administration to be the financial capital of the country!

Palghar-Dental-check-up
Palghar-Dental-check-up

Ironically, malnutrition is not connected to health, and most certainly not to deaths brought about by starvation, if we are to believe Pankaja Munde. More than 254 children have died and there have been 195 foetal deaths due to malnutrition in Palghar, but the minister had then stated, ‘We handle nutrition whereas children’s deaths are under the purview of the health department.’ It was left to Health minister Deepak Sawant to call her bluff in his observation, ‘I principally agree that the children’s death is the responsibility of the health department… But it’s like when we issue a death certificate for cardiorespiratory failure, what caused it?’

Shockingly, there is no need to make much of a tribal girl’s rape, if we are to believe Vishnu Savara who, while reacting to the rape and exploitation of a 13-year-old girl living in a government-run ashram in Buldhana, had said, ‘such incidents do happen.’ The same Savara, while reacting to the malnutrition death of a two-year-old tribal child in Palghar, had said, ‘let it be.’ No wonder the Bombay High Court had to intervene and instruct the government to move ahead even as it observed, after receiving copy of an action plan prepared by the state, ‘We believe now the government is really serious about the problem. Government has finally woken up.’

Palghar -Eye-testing
Palghar -Eye-testing

However, much before this, the plight of the tribals had caught the attention of Kshamta, the social responsibility forum of NMIMS, School of Pharmacy, headed by Sanket Shah and Parija Parikh, who along with its other members are committed to creating a positive impact on society through many welfare initiatives, including their Svasthya healthcare events.

A team of 70 Kshamta members, accompanied by a group of doctors, drove across early in the morning to Jamsar village in Palghar’s Jawhar tehsil and conducted a Svasthya health camp for the inhabitants there.

Doctors provided health check-ups to evaluate body mass index, haemoglobin, dental, eye and pulmonary function, and gave advice regarding diet and nutrition, hygiene, and aspects of basic physiotherapy to ensure better health for the villagers and their children.

Palghar - Inhabitants-of-Jamsar-village.
Palghar – Inhabitants-of-Jamsar-village.

In a move which leaves the Maharashtra government far behind, the Kshamta team, in consultation with the sarpanch and the headmaster of the village school, initiated a system to address the problem of malnutrition in a batch of 30 children which it has adopted. The health of the children in this batch will be continuously monitored and looked after by Kshamta. The aim is to provide ample feedback so that this unique gesture can be emulated on a larger scale by departments in the state administration and by other NGOs.

The students said that they wanted to ensure that efforts of the Svasthya health camp continued to benefit the lives of the people, and did not stop at being just a one-day affair. Medicines and tonics as well as ointments were handed over to those who needed them with advice on how to handle their health problems, and the plan is to revisit the place as often as possible.

The Kshamta team visited the village school, Eklavya, where members interacted with students to understand and learn about their situation at the school as well as at their homes, before handing over notebooks, stationery, and floor mats and blankets so that students did not have to sit on the plain cold or wet floors. Items of clothing were also provided to the students and people of Jamsar.

Palghar -Unwrapping-the-items-for-school-kids
Palghar -Unwrapping-the-items-for-school-kids

The giveaways were not pre-packed goodies readily provided by sponsors outsourcing their CSR obligations. The youngsters had organized a well-planned donation drive where clothes, stationery, floor mats, notebooks were collected from colleges and housing societies over a period of two months. Team members then went about segregating, ironing and packing over 8,500 items of clothing, more than 1,200 notebooks and a great number of boxes containing medicines and stationery items. Doctors were approached and their presence was sought at the camp, which is being acknowledged by the local administration as a very successful initiative. The modest bunch of students however accords credit to their dean, Dr. Bala Prabhakar and extra-curricular activities in-charge, Dr. Surendra Agarwal.

It is heartening to know that a dedicated team of pharmacy students can voluntarily go out into a tribal belt and happily do what our government has only now set about doing, that too after prods from the courts.

Palghar -Supplies-need-to-keep-coming
Palghar -Supplies-need-to-keep-coming