The Hindu : National : Infant mortality rate up in Amravati district

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Monday, Jul 11, 2005

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National

Infant mortality rate up in Amravati district

Meena Menon

Between March and June, 82 children under the age of six have died

— Photo: Vivek Bendre

A BLEAK FUTURE: Fulvanti Jambekar with her son, Ajay, who is suffering from third-grade malnutrition, at Beradaballa village in Melghat.

AMRAVATI: "I know this time it will be a boy," says Manu Kasdekar of Beradaballa village, Dharni taluka. His wife, Benu, is in her ninth month of pregnancy and they hope for another boy to replace their three-year-old son, Rahul, who died last year.

Rahul was weak and malnourished. "He had convulsions at night and there was no way I could take him to hospital. The nearest hospital is about 18 km away and the roads are bad. Where could I have gone at night? We had no money to save our child. I just watched my son struggle and die," recalls Manu. Even though the Government has appointed a health worker for the hamlet, it was of no use.

Benu is eating a snack of toasted mahua flowers with her daughter, Mitha. Her eyes are full of sorrow. They have three daughters and it clear that Rahul's loss is fresh in their minds.

In Beradaballa village, seven children died last year. This year, there are 12 severely malnourished children below six years in this village, which has 260 children.

In Kharya Tembru village, about six km from Dharni, Chanda Mhauskar is yet to recover from a double tragedy. Her two-year-old son Devidas died in November last after convulsions. He was malnourished and was admitted to the hospital in Dharni for a long time but he did not recover. This April, her five-month-old son, Mangesh, who was a healthy baby, developed some boils and passed away. "Both my sons were healthy, I don't know what happened," said a puzzled Chanda, who also has a daughter.

This year in Kharya Tembru, two women delivered stillborn babies in May while Pushpa Bhilavekar's two-day-old baby died in March. "The baby was born prematurely in the sixth month. Though the boy was kept in an incubator and the local primary health centre gave him oxygen, he did not survive," she said.

Nandakumar Darshimbe's son, eight-month-old Ravinash died in hospital on May 18. A malnourished child, he developed typhoid and did not recover.

Dr. P.S. Dalu, Additional District Health Officer, told The Hindu that between April 2004 and March 2005, 468 children died in the Dharni and Chikaldhara talukas, which comprise the Melghat region of Amravati district. It records the highest number of child deaths in Maharashtra.

Last year, thanks to the Assembly elections, child deaths received much media attention. This year, the number of deaths remains the same; only the hue and cry is missing.

Dr. Dalu said the infant mortality rate had gone up from 37 per 1000 live births to 44 per 1000 in 2004-05. Between March and June, 82 children under the age of six had died. Last year for the same period, the figure was 86 deaths.

Bhimsingh Sanu Patorkar has brought his eight-month-old son, Parashuram, to Kharya Tembhru. The child is acutely malnourished and has a lump near his stomach, which could be an enlarged spleen. He suffers from acute pain and though he was hospitalised in Dharni, there was no change in his condition, according to Bhimsingh, who lives in Baru village.

"We were advised to take him to Amravati, which I cannot afford," he says. Parashuram waves his bone-thin hands, even as his large eyes reflect the pain he is undergoing. His swollen stomach bears the faint marks of "damma," a local practice where a hot metal rod is applied to relieve pain and illness. Bhimsingh will once again take recourse to "damma" to heal his son.

The sub-district hospital in Dharni has admitted several cases of malnutrition. "Last week, this room was full of women and children," says Sonkali, indicating the women's ward at the hospital. Now all of them have left as the sowing season has begun, she adds.

Sonkali's one-and-a-half-month-old son, Sanjay, is suffering from bronchopneumonia and is acutely malnourished.

In the neighbouring beds are two more malnourished children. Three-year old Suman, the sixth child of Kisan Jambhekar, is suffering from anaemia and hypoprotemia and is also in grade four of malnutrition. She is lying on the cot, her face covered with a cloth to keep the flies away. "Suman's mother is mentally ill and she cannot take care of the children," says Kisan, who has to stay with his daughter.

Gulai's daughter, Bhageshri, who is over a year old, is sick with gastroenteritis. Hospital sources say that every year, about 250 children below the age of six are admitted with acute malnutrition. Last year, eight of them died, mainly due to bronchopneumonia.

Dr Dalu says, "While the deaths have reduced by 50 per cent over a decade, we cannot maintain the same rate. It can be reduced slowly but you also need some social change."

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