No joyful shrieks but only mother's bewailing in villages

Narkundi-Dongriguda-Badakui or Baramba ----- these villages are neither sacred places nor any tourist spot of Orissa, a state in India. These are some examples of human habitation where the first news hunters reach with a view to collect first hand information about the people dying by bits and thereafter the bureaucracy rush there to patch up the exposed cases. Thus no one knows as to how many Dongrigudas surfaced after independence, how many opposition parties kept on lamenting in the name of Badakuri and some times the government announced packages after thinking and deliberating about dozens of villages like Barmba and Narkundi. But the political motives behind such moves from beating of breast to providing packages have produced the most frustrating results. Even the state government also realizes such frustration indirectly but not directly.

In spite of hundreds of programmes associated with women and child welfare, the Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) in this state is much higher than that in other states of India. At present, IMR at national level is 71 per 1000, whereas in Orissa it is 97. In India, out of deceased child between birth and one month's age, 60% cases are happened in Orissa. If we talk about malnutrition among the children, this state again occupies first position spontaneously. If 46.7 per cent children up to three years of age in the country are the victims of malnutrition, this figure touches 54.4 % in Orissa.

Besides, the custom of getting more than 66.5% deliveries conducted in a traditional way is prevalent in 90% tribal populace with the help of Dai. That is why, the IMR in the state increased during the last 10 years. In the remote villages of Phulbani (Old name Kondhmal), Sundargarh, Koraput, Kalahandi and Malkangiri districts, many mothers die during delivery. The tradition way of delivery still exists in these areas which is extremely painful. During labour pain, the mothers are lying on ground and three or four women put pressure on her abdomen to get the baby release from her womb. This is very painful process. In addition to this after delivery, the Dai cut off the placenta with a piece of stone or backed tiles of roof. They apply cow dung on the wounded parts of newly born baby that is caused harmful and fatal for the kids.

The government or the administration may term the deaths which happened in the backward regions of this province as mysterious or as the result of risky tradition of the tribals. The official sources say it is hard to convince the tribal to abdicate the bad practices concerning the health. But this is very surprising to say is it impossible to convince them to accept the modern method of delivery or to believe in medicine? As far as the mysterious disease is concerned, is it impossible to explore the root cause of those diseases that chew hundreds of life very year?

Out of the mysterious diseases, one disease is Malaria which is the biggest pretext given for the death of children in this state. According to a Report issued by National Malaria Eradication Programme (IMEP) in 1998, out of the total number of Malaria cases registered throughout the country, 62.4% cases are recorded from Orissa. In case of Orissa, 90% cases of Malaria are registered in Kalahandi-Bolangir-Phulbani-Koraput districts, known as ‘Highly Malaria Prone Zone'. In the list of total number of Malaria patient by the state, 76.88% victims out of them are of less than under 5 years of age. They are cent percent Cerebral Malaria victim. According to District Malaria Officer, Kalahandi, in Thomal Rampur, Cerebral Malaria cases are highest in all over the country.

According to a report issued by a local NGO, most of the children are born with a weight of less than 2.5 kgms. In such a state, they are not capable of fighting with different types of diseases. According to Sample Registration Survey of 2001, the IMR in the state is 90 per 1000 population, which by all means, is the highest in the whole country. As per government commitment, this rate would be around 60 by the end of 2005. “Now, government must take some accurate step on ground reality. Data processing is not enough in this concern. The whole nation would be satisfied only when the incidents like Dongriguda and Baramba are not repeated in future,” says Bal Gopal Mishra, Ex-MLA from Luisinga of Bolangir suggests.