Threats

On
Child Health & Survival

!! An Alert Note on Death of Children in Agasiya & Madrani village of

Meghnagar block in Jhabua District!!

Prepared by

Madhya Pradesh Lok Sanghash Sajha Manch and

Right to Food Campaign, Madhya Pradesh
 Summary-

o Tribal (mostly Bhil) constitute 86% of the population of Jhabua district.

o 43 children within three months in Meghnagar block in Jhabua District of Madhya
Pradesh.
o Among these 43 children died 38 children were from two Agasiya and Madrani
Villages of Meghnagar.
o Among these 43 children died, 39 children belong to under 5 years of age.
o None of the 43 children died were referred to NRC or any other health institution by
AWC.
o Agasiya and Madrani villages are widely scattered villages divided into different
phaliyas (hamlets).
o And there is only one anganwadi centre (AWC) between three-four tolas.
o Village Agasiya is having is only one AWC between with six scattered hamlets.
o 38 percent of children surveyed under three AWCs of Agasiya and Madrani are not
registered in AWC.
o Poor growth monitoring and immunization in distant & scattered tolas of the two
villages.
o SNP & MDM distribution is very irregular here.
o Health institutions of Meghnagar block are still lacking required infrastructure,
manpower supply, and medicines especially for child care services.
o Jhabua contributes 13% of malaria cases in the state.
o Near 50% of poor tribal families are not provided with BPL card in Agasiya & Madrani
in lieu their agricultural landholdings. But agriculture is mostly rain fed with no
facilities for irrigation. 92% land lacks facilities for irrigation.
o BPL families are getting only 16kgs of wheat under PDS.
o In Agasiya & Madrani village villagers on an average got work maximum for 15-20
days on their job cards in 2009.
o Payment under NREGA is pending for more than two months.
o Some members from almost every family in Agasiya & Madrani are migrating to
Gujarat, Rajasthan & other parts of country to earn livelihood.
o High proportion of migration is severely affecting maternal & child health in the area.

An Introduction to Bhil Tribe: Bhil is an indigenous or non Aryan tribe. The Bhils are
recognized as the oldest inhabitant of southern Rajputana & parts of Gujrat. The name
Bhil seems to occur for first time about A.D. 600.The name Bhil is supposed to be
drive from the Dravidian word for a bow, which is the characteristics weapon of the
tribe.
The Jhabua Bhil retains some dim and incoherent outlines of their migration. Damor
were the first Bhil in Jhabua. Bhilali language has been spoken over in great
proportion of the district. The Bhils are brave, versatile & extremely daring. They
have 108 gotras, some of which are Damar, Vasuniya, Muhiya, Maida, Bhuriya
etc.The Bhil population in the villages lives scattered and their houses are quite far
from each other. In jhabua agriculture has been their primary activity of Bhil tribe
along with labour work.

Socio economic life in Jhabua

In Jhabua, 93.9 percent of population residing in rural areas and 87.6% of urban
population are surviving with low standard of living. But only 45% of the children are
provided with BPL card. Only 4.5 percent of rural population in jhabua has an access
to toilet facilities while only 1.5% uses piped drinking water1.

Regarding the status of maternal & child health situation is no better as rightly
revealed by DLHS-3. 22 % mothers had been facilitated with at least 3 Ante-Natal
care visits during the last pregnancy. Only 37.6% of women undergo institutional
deliveries and 28.9 percent of women received post natal care within 48 hours of
delivery. Merely 19.4 percent of children (12-23 months) are fully immunized while
14.6 % children (9-35 months) who have received at least one dose of Vitamin A (%).

According to 12th Bal Sanjeevni data of May-June08, 47.6 percent of children are
malnourished in Jhabua district and the monthly progress report (MPR) of Sep09 of
Department of Women and Child Development also illustrates high percentage of
malnutrition with 42% children are malnourished in the district.

Village Agasiya: Agasiya Panchayat consists of two villages Agasiya & Todi. Agasiya is
a small village with total population of about 852 only as per census 2001.But the
village is widely scattered into different hamlets. It is fully tribal dominated village.
Their are 141 households in the village. It is having only one primary school and an
anganwani centre. Nearest town is Thandla which is located at the distance of 23 kms.

But we if go by latest data as available with the Rural Development department the
joint households have now bifurcated to 359 households. Out of them 175 households
were supplied with BPL cards while 184 families were having APL ration cards2.

* This document has been prepared by seema Jain on the basis of analysis and field survey to Meghnagar
block, Jhabua district
1
Source: District Level House Survey(DLHS III) report 2007-08
2 Source: http://nrega.nic.in as on 10 jan09
Village Madrani: Madrani is comparative a larger village. According to Census 2001,
total population of the panchayat is 3678 with tribal population of 2991. Madrani is
the only village in the Madrani Panchayat. It is having 612 households. Madrani
village is spread out in an area of 790hectare.

Again, as per the latest data of Rural Development department the number of
households has increased to 716 households while 329 families are marked as BPL.3

The vulnerable tribal households in Agasiya & Madrani villages are surviving in
meager conditions with no access to decent life. Their agricultural land is mostly rain
fed with no other sustainable source of livelihood. However in spite of such scanty
circumstances more than 50% of the tribal & dalit families in the two villages are not
supplied with BPL cards.

43 Children Died in Three Months -

Malnutrition surge in Madhya Pradesh continued to blow up high with the

malnutrition death of 43 tribal children in of Agasiya, Madrani, Parnali and Ochka
villages of Jhabua district a matter needs immediate attention and actions to tackle
the situation to prevent innocent children from the death monster.

Jhabua is predominantly a tribal district located in the western part of Madhya

Pradesh. About 86 % of population is tribal while 3% population belongs to Schedule
Castes. Here 47 per cent of the people live below the poverty line. The literacy rate
according to 2001 census is 36.87% with female literacy of only 20.86% in rural areas.
Thus, Jhabua is an overwhelmingly tribal and poor district. Here 91 percent of
population resides in rural areas of 1326 inhabited villages.

Aganwadi jate hai to daliya nahi milta aur aspatal mai dava bottle nahi milti,isliye
bacche mar rahe hai (When we go to AWC, we do not get SNP and hospitals do not
have medicines, therefore children are dying ). Shama gali gayo tho i.e. Shama (4
years) from Singadiya tola became were malnourished & ultimately he died 12 days
before on 23rd Dec09 with the diarrhea attack ,said Galia, Shamas father. Though
Bhadur (a local social worker) informed AWC about Shamas deteriorating condition
on Nov09 but no action was taken up by AWW. Shama was not registered in
Anganwadi centre so in spite of being malnourished he was neither referred to NRC
by Anganwadi worker nor provided with SNP.

3 Source: http://nrega.nic.in as on 10 jan09

Agasiya & Madrani villages have witnessed the death of 38 tribal children in a period
of just three months Oct-Dec09 and it is still continued to devour up small kids. The
reason is the sky scraping situation of starvation & malnutrition along with poor
quality welfare services in tribal dominated district of Madhya Pradesh.

List of Children died between Oct-Dec09

Name of Fathers Name Age Sex Child Died Village
Child on
1 Arjun Binnu Agasiya 2 months M Nov09 Agasiya

2 Vijesh Kalsingh 5 years M Nov09 Agasiya

Ninama
3 Shama Galia 4 years M 23rd Dec09 Madrani

4 Ravi Bhur Singh 3 years M 17th Dec09 Madrani

5 Pinka Dilip Adivasi 3 years F Nov09 Madrani

(priyanka)

6 Rinku Siska 3 years F 24th Nov09 Madrani

7 Bundi Jalu 5 years F 22th Nov09 Madrani

8 Rahul Sakariya 4 years M 5th Dec09 Madrani

9 Sunil Sunder 3 years M 24th Nov09 Madrani

10 Sivan Ganiya 1 year M 10th Dec09 Madrani

11 Musula Jogi Ninama 6 Years M Oct09 Agasiya

12 Usha Rajesh 4 years F Nov09 Agasiya
Damore
13 Bhura Jhajhira(Jhitra) 2 years M Nov09 Agasiya
14 Rakha Bhura 2 years F Nov09 Agasiya
Badiya
15 Tura Kanu Bhuriya 5 years M Nov09 Agasiya
16 Santosh Bunda 4 years M Nov09 Madrani
17 Radhika Dinesh 6 months F Nov09 Madrani
 18 Karan Thavariya 1 year M Nov09 Madrani
Damore
19 Manish Kanji Katara 1 year M Nov09 Madrani
20 Puppa Rewa 3 years F Nov09 Madrani
Vasuniya
21 Munga Navalsingh 6 years F Nov09 Madrani
22 Mukesh Balu Vasuniya 1 year M Nov09 Madrani
23 Ramli Ramesh Mavi 3 years F Oct 09 Madrani
24 Basudi Basu Mavi 3 years F Oct09 Madrani
25 Gava Jala Fatiya 2 years M Nov09 Madrani
26 Minakshi Bhumal 2 years F 5 th Nov09 Madrani
27 Guddi Kamlesh 6 months F 22th Dec09 Madrani
28 Vijay Lula Vasuniya 1.6 year M Nov09 Madrani

29 Makna Dita 10 M 9th Dec09 Parnali

30 Vijesh Satru 3 M 30th Nov09 Ochka
31 Kumika Badru 5 F 18th Dec09 Itawa
32 Daksh Kamlesh 1 M 21st Dec09 Madrani
33 Shivam Galiya 2 M 9th Dec09 Agasiya
34 Vila Hukiya 8 M 25th Nov09 Madrani
35 Anita Kalu 13 months F 4th Dec09 Madrani
36 Kalu Haqriya 18 M 1st Dec09 Madrani
37 Gila Sukiya 8 M 3rd Dec09 Madrani
38 Badu Varsingh 5 M 18th Non Madrani
39 Toli Tansingh 5 M 29th Nov Madrani
40 Kamlesh Shetaan 3 M 1st Dec Madrani
41 Sumitra Janiya 3 F 28th Dec09 Madrani
(Sunita)
42 Bawal Toliya 5 M 5th Dec09 Parnali
43 Guddu Shetaan 2 M Dec09 Parnali

Tribal Health Profile in Madhya Pradesh

Though tribal constitute considerable proportion of the total population of Madhya

Pradesh, but still they are forced to survive in deteriorating health conditions in lack
of sustainable access of health services. The widespread poverty, illiteracy,
malnutrition, absence of safe drinking water and sanitary living conditions, poor
maternal and child health services and ineffective coverage of national health and
nutritional services have been traced out in several studies as possible contributing
factors to dismal health conditions prevailing among the tribal population in India. 4

According to many research on tribal health the major tribal Health problems5 in
India can be broadly classified into four categories:
Communicable diseases Malaria, T.B
Gastrointestinal disorders- diarrhea, dysentery
Parasitic infection
ARI

Fever, resulting from malaria is the main cause of sickness found among the children.
Tribal infants in Madhya Pradesh are known to suffer from high sickle cell anemia.
Deforestation has resulted into the depletion of traditional medicines couple with
inadequate health infrastructure with little access to the trained health staff has
further deteriorated the quality of the health of the people.

Deficiency of essential components in diet leading to malnutrition, protein calorie

malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies (vit A, iron and iodine) are common.

Malaria is a major public health problem among tribal in India. This disease is
pandemic among infants and pregnant mothers among tribes resulting in high rate of
infant and maternal mortality6.

Madhya Pradesh contributes highest cases of Malaria in India (>20%) up to 1997. In

1997 Enhanced Malaria Control Programme (EMCP) was launched by National
Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP) which has been closed down in
Dec2005. Now the new project has been launched in Apr09 in 9 districts including
Jhabua district to control malaria cases with special focus on Falciparum malaria cases

In MP, there are some districts where the problem of malaria is worsening year by
year particularly the hardcore tribal districts having around 50% tribal population i.e.
Mandla, Dindori, Jhabua. These three districts contributed 57% of states malaria and
60% P.falciparum infection. Jhabua relatively contributes 13% of malaria cases in the
state.7

4
Health and Population: Perspectives and Issues. 2000 Apr-Jun; taken from Indian Medlars Centre
5
Demography & health profile of tribal-A study of M.P. by Dipak Kumar Adak, Biswanath Bhattacharya,
Rohini Ghosh, Anmol, 2003, xvi, 297
6 Taken from Tribal health & medicines by A.K. Kalla and P.C.Joshi 2004
7 Study of Regional Medical Research Centre for Tribals, Jabalpur (RMRCT) under ICMR- Tribal
Malaria, an Update on Changing Epidemiology by Neeru Singh
Thus various researches shows that communicable disease like Malaria and
gastrointestinal diseases like diarrhea is very common in tribal pockets of Madhya
Pradesh like Jhabua. These diseases produces more epidemic results on maternal &
child health in tribal dominated districts when accompanied with anemia in women
& children, malnutrition in children, low birth weight of children, lack of proper
immunization and timely access of health services.

The ill effects of food and nutritional insecurity can be linked to the life cycle of an
individual. With the nutritional status of mother herself being inadequate, the birth
of a child only adds to low availability of nutrition for herself. The child so born is
also having low birth weight. When a child is weaned from mothers milk to other
foods, very commonly the protein and energy requirements are not met. Due to
inappropriate complementary or supplementary feeding practices, the energy gap
widens. This is because for the proper growth after 6 months of age, the requirement
of the extra energy cannot be fulfilled by breast milk alone. This is displayed as
Protein Energy Malnutrition (PEM), which is very common form of malnutrition.

Remorseful State of ICDS Services-

Large numbers of children under six years of age in Agasiya & Madrani village of
Meghnagar are left out of the benefits of the services of Anganwadi centers. Agasiya is
a widely scattered village is divided into 6 phaliya or tolas and is having only one
AWC in Patel tola (hamlet) while rests of the tolas are almost uncovered by AWC.
This is evident even from the differentiation of the survey & registration records of
the AWCs. According to the AWW of Agasiya AWC, there are 150 children under
the AWC as per survey of July 09 but the total number of children registered in
AWC till Jan09 is just 70 children. This means 80 children of Agasiya are not even
registered in AWC.
 According to AWW for SNP distribution & other services only Patel tola area comes
under AWC while other area comes under sub AWC in School Phaliya. But it is
extremely amazing that resident of school phaliya even do not know about existence
of sub AWC in their own area. According to Kalsingh Ninama (father of Vijesh died
of malnutrition), Kalash Agasiya, Rajoo and others villagers from school phaliya
AWW never visits school phaliya nor do we get any benefits from AWC. Similar
condition exists in other tolas of Agasiya village.

Even in Patel tola with AWC, 25 children Non-registration in AWCs amplifying

were found in grade II & 5 children in
grade III of malnutrition as per the records
of AWC but out of them only one child
was referred to NRC.
Similar circumstances do exist in Madrani
village also. Madrani is comparatively a
bigger village scattered in an area of about
800 hectares of land. AWC of Vasuniya
Saat in Madrani covers Mavi, Dindore and
Vasuniya saat tolas while Madrani AWC
covers Madrani proper & Bariya saat area
but Singhadia tola with 25-30 households is
left uncovered.
malnutrition
Three years old Puppa d/o Reva
Vasuniya died of severe malnutrition
in Nov09, in Mavi tola of Madrani
Panchayat. Puppa was not even
registered in AWC. According to Reva,
Puppa and her siblings were neither
immunized through AWC nor do they
get SNP.
Even AWC records do not registered
the death of Puppa.

AWC survey reports of Vasuniya Saat & Madrani AWC in village Madrani 349
children in the two anganwadi centre while actual registered number of children was
239 only. As per AWC records, 27 children are found in grade II while 5 children
were severely malnourished. But no growth monitoring system for unregistered
children. In spite of such high range of malnutrition problem, no child among 39 died
had ever been referred to NRC for special health care & treatment.

Scenario of Health Services still not conducive for child health -

Health services are in most dressing state in Meghnagar block. Poor tribal are forced
to approach private doctors in lack of satisfactory health services. Madrani PHC was
functional with no facility for admission or institutional delivery. Only after highlight
of malnutrition issue in media in Dec09, a visiting doctor has been placed at Madrani
PHC on a weekly basis. Villagers have to travel 15-20 kms with no public
transportation facility available to seek government health services at Kakanwani,
Meghnagar or to Thandla (other block).
Arjun S/o Binnu Agasiya 2 months was very weak and was severely ill for 15-20 days.
He spitting up large amounts of milk after most feedings. They have taken Arjun to
Madrani, Meghnagar and even to Thandla. But every time they were made return
with the advice that its normal for children to split up milk or just provide with
prescription to purchase medicine from open market. No medicines have been
supplied from Hospital. They have spent around Rs. 800-1000 along with hiring
private jeep for Rs.200 to take child to Thandla health centre. Doctors calls for
bringing the child at their dispensary, where they charge Rs.50-100 as consultation
fee. The child died in lack of proper medical care. Even Arjuns elder brother Karan (4
years) was not even immunized with necessary vaccination.

Pushpa gave birth to Arjun at Kakanwadi CHC but she had not received benefits of
JSY. She gave birth to child before Dewali but was asked to come around Holi to
collect the money.

According to the child specialist from jhabua district nutritional disorders is the major
cause of infant & child mortality in Jhabua district. The systems or diseases which are
commonly prevalent among the tribal children are seasonal respiratory infections,
diarrhea, viral & malaria fever. Children are commonly anemic & malnourished
which when accompanied with worm infestation produces harmful effects on the
child health and many a times on the outbreak of deaths.

According to him, most of the tribal women are anemic with general hemoglobin
level of 7-9 only in maximum cases and the gap between two pregnancies is very low.
As a result low birth weight babies are commonly visible trend in the tribal belt of
Jhabua. This low birth babies when grow-up with inadequate nutrition soon turned
into malnourished children.

Twinge for Land holdings-

Though most of the Bhil tribal inhabiting in Jhabua have small piece of land holding
but this is insufficient to earn livelihood due to scanty average rainfall and lack of
proper irrigation facilities. Most of them are able to fetch only single crop of Maize in
rainy season. Rest of the year land either lied barren or yield very low produce
resulting in high cost of production. In Agasiya village, only 19 hectares of land is
irrigated while 185 hectares remains un-irrigated. Similarly, in 92% land lacks
facilities for irrigation.
 Is landholding really a proof of being affluent?

Galia Adivasi and his brother Bhur Singh of Singadiya tola of Madrani village in
Meghnagar block jointly landholding of 4 acres. Galia have large family including
wife and 6 children & so like his brother. But in lack of irrigation facilities, they are
able to yield only one crop in a year. In the current year their land yields merely 4
bags of maize that is not adequate to feed such a large family.

In lie of this 4 acre land, they are provided with ration card for above poverty line
(white card).According to Galia, In lack of BPL card, we need to buy maize at the
rate of Rs.200 & wheat at Rs.300 per quintals from the open market. So we are
forced to do labour work & migrate to distant places.

Another distressing feature of land holdings in Jhabua is that most of the land
holdings are jointly owned by the family of four five brothers. Though the joint
family is separated into nuclear families but landholdings are still jointly owned by
them on papers. As a result in spite of being very poor they are considered to be above
poverty line and so they are getaway from the benefits of welfare services for below
poverty line. Being deficient of subsidized ration, tribal are not even proficient to feed
their small kids. Children are left unfed or half starved. In the long run they are
turned malnourished. This is perceptible through the death of 43 children in a short
span of time.

Veracity of Public Distribution System

Though the rural areas of Jhabua district is dominated by population residing in a

very low standard of living (93.9%) and 45.5% of the children are provided with BPL
card, but field realities from Agasiya & Madrani villages of Meghnagar block shows
very gloomy picture functioning of public distribution system (PDS) in Jhabua. is
strategy intended to ensure food security for the vulnerable poor. The aim of the
Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) scheme is to provide special food-based assistance to
destitute households. The BPL and AAY card holders are entitled to 35kg of
subsidized rice or wheat per month from the designated local ration shop. But the
BPL and AAY beneficiaries in Agasiya & Madrani panchayat are getting merely 16
kgs of wheat only. Rice are not at all available at the subsidized rate. Sugar is available
only during Holi & Dewali8 and that too in small quantity of merely 2 kilograms.
According to Kalsingh, Binnu, Kailash and Galia Adivasi of Agasiya village,
Mahangai badti ja rahi, per coupon per shakkar, chawal nahi milte.Shakkar 40 ki ho

8 Analyzed during individual & group discussion at AAY & BPL cardholders at Agasiya & Madrani
villages in Jan10
gayi hai, gareeb kaha jaye. (i.e. prices are continuously risings but we do not get
sugar & rice under PDS, so it becomes very difficult for poor to survive).

Hollowness of NREGA Enticing Migration -

NREGA is supposed to be a demand driven programme and this provides another

critical incentive to States to leverage the Act. As a result administration do not
initiated steps to aware the destitute villagers to make demands for work against their
job cards. Villagers of Agasiya & Madrani revealed that during 2009 they got
maximum 15-20 days of work under NREGA. They are not made aware of the fact
that they need to make demand of work in writing. They were called upon whenever
some work is about to start.

Delayed payment is also another major issue in Meghnagar block. In 2009, in Agasiya
village work of digging up of lake was undertaken in Oct09 under which individuals
card holder got work maximum 10-15 days of work only9. And even payment of
wages for these 10-15 days of work is still pending till Jan10 for work done in
October 09.According to kalsingh, Sarpanch has kept our Job cards but our payment
is pending for more than two months for 15 days work on talab (lake).

Social audit is an important tool to monitor the progress under NREGA. It helps to
analyze deviations/shortfall in the implementation & also ensures the accountability
of the responsible officers. Social audit also facilitates for community to internalize
their rights & entitlements under the act. Social audit had taken place in Agasiya &
Madrani panchayat, but community is not aware or informed about it. And the social
audit report number 172100324 & 172100311 dated 20th Aug09 illustrates that no
issues or grievances under NREGA were found in Agasiya & Madrani panchayats. But
the tribal & dalit community of Madrani & Agasiya is very hassle as they are not
getting work under NREGA. They forced to migrate even to Gujarat & Rajasthan in
search of livelihood.

Almost every tribal family from Agasiya and Madrani is forced to migrate to avert
starvation emerging from non availability of work under NREGA within their own
periphery. High proportion of migration is found to have complex effects on
childrens health & nutritional status.

Binnu Agasiya, Galiya, Dilip Dindore, Ramesh Mavi and Ganiya Toli were on
migration to different areas like Baroda, Kota, Surat etc to earn livelihood through

9 As told by the tribal villagers during field visit by VSS team in Jan10.
labour work when their toddlers died. Sivan s/o Ganiya and Bundi s/o Jalu Vasuniya
from Vasuniya Saat were died in Kota during migration period.

According to Bundis grandfather Gour Singh, Rs.4500 has been spent on the
treatment of Bundi at Kota and Rs.7000 for hiring jeep to bring Bundi back to
Madrani. For this they have taken debt from private contractor for whom they work
in Kota. So now Jalu needs to work as bounded labour at Kota till he pays of all the
debt.

Anecdote of Agricultural Debt in Jhabua10 -

The unremitting drought in Jhabua regions of the Madhya Pradesh coupled with the
fragmentation of landholdings and changing pattern and priorities of cropping have
completely jeopardized the livelihoods of the people and landed them into the vicious
grip of debt.

According to the Economic Survey of Madhya Pradesh, in last five years (from 2004
to 2008), the production of cotton in district has reduced from 27225 bales (a bale of
170 kg each) to only 3983 bales.

Local and traditional seeds are totally out of the market now In Jhabua the chemical
fertilizer used per hectare was 20 kg in 1970 and has reached to an astounding 800 kg
per hectare during the Kharif crop of 2009.The use of chemical fertilizers and
pesticides by the farmers in Jhabua to seek maximum benefit of cash crops like cotton,
tomato and chilly is six to eight times more than the official national average and 10
to 12 times more than MPs average.

As per statistics of the MP Agriculture Department, in year 2005-06, the productivity

of cotton in Jhabua was 442 kg per hectare, but reduced to 370 kg in 2006-07 and as
low as 151 kg in 2008-09. Even for soybean crop, the district with production of 775
kg per hectare has started to lag considerably behind the State average of 1143 kg per
hectare.

Thus decreased average agricultural productivity in conjunction with increased cost

has created catastrophic state as the average loan on farmers has increased manifold
from Rs 2500 in 1991 to over Rs 35000 now. As a result, their standard of living
deteriorated further which ultimately have an impact on the nutritional status
through increased food insecurity and decreased survival rate of mother & the
children.

10 Source: [ksrksa ij jlk;uksa dh ckfjk write-up by Sachin Jain, Bhopal in Dec09 on increasing use of
chemical fertilizers in Jhabua
Conclusion-

The socio economic jaggedness in life of tribal has increased the threat to existence of
children in Agasiya & Madrani. Increased dept, lack of employment, exclusion from
the benefits of welfare schemes (like PDS, ICDS, and NREGA etc) are resulting into
severe consequences of starvation and malnourishment in children.

The future generation of the Bhil is anguished from lethargic systems ignoring the
needs of their growth and development. Large number of children from Meghnagar
block are even kept out of the ICDS services which are specially meant for them.
Immunization is foremost right of every child, but Bhil children from Agasia &
Madrani villages are even debarred of that. Due to high proportion of migration they
are spinning towards malnutrition which further pushed them into the grip of various
diseases. In Agasiya & Madrani vicious circle out broke with the mortality of 43
children in very short span of time because:

In spite of Supreme Court order dated 28th Nov01 for opening ICDS
Disbursement Centre at every hamlet, large number children in Agasiya
and Madrani village are devoid of the benefits of the AWC because there is
no AWC in their hamlet.
Large numbers of children from Agasiya & Madrani are still to get
registered under ICDS. New AWCs in every scattered hamlet should be set
up at the earliest.
Special attention is still required to services like specially SNP distribution,
growth monitoring of all the children and regularization of immunization
in Agasiya and Madrani.
Public distribution system is not ensuring minimum quota of food grains
under BPL and AAY card in the two villages. And BPL list needs to be
reviewed again.
Here NREGA is not effective to put a halt to distressed migration and must
be revived immediately.
All such breach in services are affecting child health and driving them to
malnutrition related disorders.