Rajasthan: Over 100 malnourished children among Sahariya tribe found in Baran district

Kota (Rajasthan): At least 172 cases of malnourished children have been identified among Sahariya tribals in Baran district within two weeks, officials said.

The children from Shahabad-Kishanganj area were admitted to government-run Malnourishment Treatment Centres (MTCs), with 25 of them discharged after treatment, they said, adding that they remain under monitoring.

The surge in cases has put a question mark on the government health apparatus and the district's Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) department.

The outbreak came to light when a malnourished Sahariya child was detected last week, that led to Baran district collector Rohitashva Singh Tomer initiate a survey to identify malnourished children in the area.

Sahariya children are particularly susceptible to malnourishment as their families, mostly migrant labourers, tend to overlook their care due to their work hours, leading to them falling prey to seasonal diseases, Tomer said on Thursday.

The district administration had launched a campaign in August to identify malnourished children in the Shahabad-Kishanganj area which detected a significant number of cases, he said.

To accommodate the influx of patients, MTC bed facilities were temporarily expanded in the Baran district hospital and the community health centre in Samrania, he further said.

The ICDS department in the district faces a critical shortage of staff, affecting the implementation of schemes, monitoring, and tracking systems, Deputy Director of ICDS in Baran, Neeru Sankhla said.

Currently, there are only two Child Development Project Officers (CDPOs) against the sanctioned posts of eight in the district and out of the 51 sanctioned posts for Lady Supervisors (LS), only 18 are positioned in the field, she said.

Despite these challenges, supply and distribution of nutrient-rich diets among Sahariya families have remained uninterrupted, but the CSR budget for "therapeutic diet" for Sahariya children has not been allocated this year, she added.

Political leaders from both ruling and opposition parties have taken notice of the situation.

Kishanganj MLA Lalit Meena, from the state ruling BJP party, visited the MTCs last week to assess the healthcare facilities being provided to the children under treatment.

Meena also wrote a letter to Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma, demanding for the establishment of new MTCs in community health centres and sub-centres in the Sahariya-populated Shahabad and Kishanganj areas.

He also called for increase in the allocation of funds for Sahariya families and the reinstatement of schemes for Sahariya tribals, which were discontinued by the previous state Congress government.

Former local MLA from the Congress party, Nirmla Sahariya blamed the BJP government for the current state of the tribals. She alleged that the BJP government discontinued the schemes for the Sahariya tribals after coming to power in the state.

It is estimated that approximately 40,000 Sahariya families reside in the Shahabad-Kishanganj area and their desire for more than one male child often leads these families to have 7-8children, perpetuating a cycle of poverty and food scarcity.

The majority of the children with malnourishment were identified through the survey, and now it has dwindled to 1-2 cases, indicating that the situation is gradually coming under control, Shahabad block chief medical and health officer in-charge Shekh Arif Iqubal said.