• 86,000 Kids Died
  Pre-matured deaths every year
  
• Mother's bewailing in villages
  India's 63% cases of Malaria found
  

86,000 Kids Die Pre-matured death every year

Dhongriguda a small place in India with a tribal population of about 300 people is a non-revenue village in the reserve forest area of State Orissa, district Nawrangpur. The terror of death demon is still there in the eyes of villagers, who lost their 12 children, aged 2 to 5, between June 11 and July1. Embraced by media reports, the bureaucrats, who never bothered to visit remote hamlets like Dongriguda, treading the zigzag forest-path to save the face of their political masters. The pencil thin seven children were shifted to the Community Health Center (CHC) at Jharigaon. Further they were transferred at the district hospital, one of these children died at Nawrangpur on July 24, taking the toll to 12. with a tribal population of about 300 people is a non-revenue village in the reserve forest area of district Nawrangpur. The terror of death demon is still there in the eyes of villagers,who lost their 12 children, aged 2 to 5, between June 11 and July1. Embraced by media reports , the bureaucrats, who never bothered to visit remote hamlets like Dongriguda, treading the zigzag forest-path to save the face of their political masters. The pencil thin seven children were shifted to the Community Health Center (CHC) at Jharigaon. Further they were transferred at the district hospital, one of these children died at Nawrangpur on July 24, taking the toll to 12.

Similarly, in the first month of August, the death demon caught at least 12 kids in its paws in two different villages named Kerpoi-Nakrundi and Jharigaon of Thomal Rampur block of Kalahandi district. The sources attached report these remote villages witnessed the death of kids constantly. The children initially had loose motion including vomiting and then fever. Within a day, they went in to the lap of Death demon. However, Shashawat Mishra, Collector-Kalahandi, ruled out of these deaths that were claimed by the local media but he deputed soon a doctor in the Primary Health Centre at Narkundi, 7 km away from Kerpoi. According to Shushil Rath, ADM Public Health visited the said villages and negated any death in this region. But total 18 tribals including 12 kids died there due to mysterious disease. 

Two months ago, Baramba village of Cuttuck district, very near to Bhubaneswar, jolted the corridors of power, when mysterious diseases eat out the life of 19 kids. The serious incidence took place before one could know anything about this disease, which appeared to be like small pox. According to Alekha Routroy, District Medical Officer, “Due to malnutrition, in Dongriguda, the children was died”. So happened in Barmaba also. It is a fact that the children living like Barmaba die only because of malnutrition. The incidents of these villages that are being defined as mysterious death in the administrative terminology of state that is why the State Health Department made public such a statement about the rapidly dying children. Regrettably, the administration always tries its best to hush up such types of collective death initially but the much aware and alert print and electronic media highlights these issues in the name of committed journalism and human rights protection.

The people come to know about Dongriguda, an Aadivasi settlement located in the reserve forest under Jharigaon block of Nawrangpur district, through the efforts of a local journalist that felled upon the sleeping sozzled administration like thunderbolt and forced them to visit that village, where 12 children below 2 years of age were reported to have died. The statement of administration about this death toll is that “… the respiratory system of the children already weakened due to shortage of proteins and they got infection which proved to be fatal for them.” According to Arbind Padhi, the District Collector of Nawrangpur says, “The medical team described it as Interocolitis which is fatal, especially for kids. The children died due to acute respiratory tract infection and colitis with worm infestation”. Locals believe that the children died due to lack of nutrition as the food items under Integrated Child Development Scheme in the district do not reach there. On the other hand the Collector blamed the parents for the deaths. “The parents go to work leaving the children with their siblings, who are not able to handle children.” He clarifies, “There was no shortage of food and most of the families in the hamlet had been issued gratuitous cards”. “We are taking all possible measures to prevent further deaths of children”, he adds”.

Though, Dongriguda is inhabited in the extremely remote area and not accessible by road. To reach the hamlet from Nawrangpur, one must first undertake 86 km journey to Jahrigaon. From there a narrow 22- km dirt track leads to the edge of the forest. From where one must trek 6 km down the jungle path to reach this hamlet. “…so it is hard to provide medical facility to the villagers. Forced to accept the brutal fact of this hamlet to a great extent after this incident, the district administration was unable to hide this case because the news went on spreading like wildfire. However, State Health and Family Minister Bijayshree Routray, along with two other ministers visited the CHC. In order to score a few political brownie points, a team of Congress Committee President Jayadev Jena visited Dongriguda. On its return from this hamlet, the Congress raised the issue of malnutrition deaths in the Assembly and blamed the Biju Janata Dal-Bhartiya Janata Party government for its failure to help the 82 Aadivasi families of this hamlet. On the other hand, Ulka Chandra of Cong (I) explained ridiculously, “… the government has yet to conduct a survey in the tribal areas. The facts and figures are very old in this connection. The government is thinking for the same. The solution of these problems will be explored after a survey”. On that day, the House witnessed great uproar and the members were demanding for a judicial enquiry regarding the Dongriguda children deaths. But nothing happened. The government was taking this incidence only accidental not unprecedented. 

Actually, “…the positive willpower of the state government towards health services is not visible anywhere. That is why, 86,000 kids are died pre-matured death every year. And Dongriguda or Baramba is the part of this draconian process of death”, says Narottam Kar of Ganjam based NGO named Centre For Rural Upliftment. Samudra Nayak of Zoripai village in Koraput district states emotionally, “Whether its is Barmba or Dongriguda, such villages just become the news… as soon as they come into news, the entire administration rushes towards theses villages. In the mourning surroundings, they console the braved families and go back. And the story remains the same.” “When the people die in large numbers first of all the journalists go to that village and then administration,” says Akhshay Kar of Guipita village of district Kalahandi.

The statement of Akhshay Kar is supported by the death of seven tribal children in Badakuri village under Dhanpur Panchayat of Jaipur Division of Koraput district in the last week of June this year. According to C.C. Pradhan, Sub-Divisional Medical Officer, “All of a sudden the villagers felt weakness. Many of them fainted. They were shivering. We thought that was a serious malarial attack. The doctors kept on trying to get them rid …..”. As per the reports of District Administration, seven tribal children died and 45 others kept on hanging between life and death for weeks together. “At least two dozens children died due to a mysterious disease,” Parbhat Pattnaik, a local journalist reports. But “…the district administration gave the figures of diseased kids only 2 only to avoid giving compensasation”, alleges Debu Nayak, a Social Worker in Koraput.

According to Debu Nayak, the poor villagers were highly frustrated due to such number of kid's death. They worshipped the God of forest. “Our Dooma (Forest God) was annoyed with us. Since a long, we did not offer Him any goat or hen….. So we lost our kids. We have to bear altogether,” says Bandhu Nayak, the local resident of this village. The local government doctors define these deaths in the category of ‘mysterious' but they are not ready to accept the statement of Bandhu Nayak. “There is lack of awareness among the villagers. Even today, they attribute fever-vomiting- dysentery as the annoyance of their God. This reality is existed all over the state”, Pavitra Mohanty, a local health worker of Bolangir clarifies. “If someone tells the cause of these diseases, they do not believe these things,” she adds. So, “…this is a great setback of rural or tribal Orissa as awareness component has not been added in the health package from the side of government”, says Vijay Rath, a Rayagada based social worker. On the other hand, the state is not in that position to provide basic or primary health facilities to each and every villager. Take the example of Guipita of district Kalahandi. This village is situated 15 km away from district head quarter Bhawnipatana. But its Primary Health Centre (PHC) is existed 45 km away from this village. Under these circumstances, the inhabitants of this village are forced to be deprived of even the basic health services. In addition to this, the primary health care centers are on the verge of collapse in this state. In Nawarangpur, as many as 37 posts of medical officers and 112 posts of paramedical staff are lying vacant. The number of vacancies in the former cases was 47 in last June. In Dongriguda, a female health worker is the sole link between the government and the people of Dongriguda. She visits the hamlet once a month to distribute medicines for diseases such as diarrhea and malaria, the two main health concerns in the regions. Vijay Rath reports, “The incidents of Dongriguda are occurred quite frequently because on the one hand the PHCs are found locked most of the time and moreover they contain nothing except some tablets of Paracetaol and iron. So, who would like to go there after walking for such a long distance of 15 to 25 km. Due to these problems, three fourth population of this province face these dreadful fates throughout the year? But the great rampart of Bhubaneswar always proved hindrance to put the wailing of poor in the ears of power brokers. None wants to reason behind these mysterious diseases that kiss and hug a number of kids every year. Such a state of helplessness is not limited to the people living in these remote villages only but it covers the entire Health Department as well. The malaise in state's health care system is symptomatic of the larger problems afflicting the backward Koraput-Bolangir-Kalahandi (KBK) region. The infant mortality is growing every year with the authorities admitting that the death counts are under reported. The doctors take more interest in their posting, not in the service of villagers. They treat posting to the regions like Kalahandi-Bolangir-Korapot-Nawrangpur as a punishment. Once a doctor gets posted to these districts, she/he lobbies hard for a transfer to the non-tribal area. That is why, hundreds of posts in health centers and hospitals of these districts are still vacant so far. The government always provides lip services to the villagers whenever they register a complaint to any senior officer in this regard. Hence, “On the basis of present number of 1351 Primary Health Centers and 180 hospitals in 35 district of this state, if any government claims of providing better treatment, it can be termed as boasting only and nothing else”, says Pratik Mohanty, a local Congress worker of Phulbani. Ironically, the Naveen Pattnaik government has not built a single hospital since it came to power in 2000. It has only added one community health center to the 157 CHCs that existed in 1998. The advent of death demon creates havoc among all the forest dwellers of this state. Satya Pattnaik, a noted social worker and attached with an NGO named Seba Jagat, engaged in welfare activities of Kutia tribals of Urladani locality of Kalahandi, reports, “The people die of infected water also. Dozens of children left this world by consuming contaminated water. On the other side, lack of good food is also caused for more cases of death in our area”. Unfortunately, 54.4 % infants are in the grip of malnutrition in this state. Besides rice, the villagers of western part of Orissa grow pulse. The people eat rice and its starch, in the night and morning that is locally known as Pakhal-Bhat. “ This is the part of their culture or their helplessness—it is hard to explain. But this is reality; they are unaware with the benefit of green vegetable cultivation. They can not grow green leaves of Saag or other green vegetable”, says Praveen Panda, a senior advocate of Cuttuck. On the other hand, “…the government claiming to have made available nutritious food to the mothers and their kids under Aanganwadi and Integrated Child Development Programe, do not know the fact that the supplied food do not reach nor be made available in targeted villages easily”, says Jaduani Mund of Dhamragarh. Apart from that three fourth workers of Aanganwadi have not been imparted training so far. That is why, the sapling of the tribal society wither away before getting green or if they manage to survive somehow or other, fall prey to the Demon of ‘mysterious diseases'. The state in which dozens of incidents of mysterious diseases come to light resulting into death of hundreds of people and the province where the statistics relating to state health is a decade old, how can one expect any improvement or remedy? Does the Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) of Orissa equal the IMR of African countries not enough to make the Chief Minister of Orissa feel restless or let the Rome burn, and Nero would go on playing on flute. It has to be seen whether the state government, after the death of 12 children in Dongriguda, take any solid step or only set a judicial enquiry or only the flute tunes would keep on resounding from the corridors of power. Who would take care of these tribals and when? This is the biggest curiosity of this age.