Jaipur: Malnutrition is said to have claimed the lives of 25 children in Rajasthan in the last two-and-half-months. Nearly half of them are from Barmer alone. According to reports, 16 more children in Barmer are in a critical condition.
These deaths have occurred in 13 districts on the high priority list for need of health services. What is also shocking is that the children died during the community-based management of acute malnutrition programme (CMAMP).
Under this programme, which was launched on December 21 and ended on February 16, the state government screened 2,40,000 children in 1,489 villages of 41 blocks in 13 “high focus” districts, and identified over 9,500 children.
However, there have been contradictory reports from the government. It is neither confirming nor denying that the children have died from malnutrition.
Health minister Raj-endra Rathore said the number of malnutrition deaths was negligible. According to him, nearly 97 per cent children have recovered under the programme, which means he didn’t rule out that malnutrition deaths occur.
“During the CMAMP programme, in the last six months, the ratio of death among acutely malnourished children was just 0.25 per cent. In these cases the possibility of deaths is 21 per cent,” he said on Saturday. But about the reports of 25 deaths, he said majority of them were due to other reasons.
On the other hand, managing director of state health mission Navin Jain outright rejected the malnutrition deaths.
Meanwhile, the district collector Sudhir Sharma in Barmer said that prima facie malnutrition is said to be the cause of deaths of these children. But, on the record they have been found to be suffering from other illness as well.
Between December 20, 2015, and February 15, five children — all girls — in Barmer’s Chouhtan district, four in Balotra and two in Siwana died of severe acute malnutrition.
