Malnutrition is killing the tribal children of Orissa (Odisha). In Nagada village area, in Jajpur district, where five children have died in the past 20 days. While the government says 15 children have died since January, the local Sarpanch puts the number at 17.

“Five children have died in 20 days at Nagada. Two of them had bronchopneumonia. The medical reports on the others are not readily available. With bad roads, we are unable to reach the spot,” Chief District Medical Officer Dr. Panigrahi said.

Renuka Dehury, sarpanch of the Chingudipal gram panchayat under whose jurisdiction Nagada falls, said: “Seventeen deaths have been reported from the village in the past five months. While the limbs of children looked like sticks, their stomachs were swollen.”

According to medical officers  treating tribals, mostly of the Juanga tribe, a majority of the children suffer from chronic malnutrition. Jajpur Collector Satya Kumar Mallick and Chief District Medical Officer Phanidra Panigrahi led a team on a field visit on Thursday. A free kitchen and health camp were announced.

The lack of drinking water makes matters worse. The population of the Juanga tribe is 419, including 127 children aged 0-5. Most children have symptoms of malnutrition.

Three children, one aged 20 days and the others three years, were recently admitted to a hospital run by Tata Steel at nearby Sukinda. A doctor said two children were suffering from malaria and were malnourished.

The doctors wanted to keep  children in the hospital for a few more days, but their parents took them back to their village where the situation got worse with the onset of monsoon. One of the two children who died in the hospital had been suffering from severe malnutrition that worsened the infection, he said.

Rabindra Mishra, a government doctor posted at a community health centre at Sukinda, said malnourished children from Nagada and other hamlets had no immunity against common diseases.

Rasmiprabha Khatua, a public health extension officer, blamed the situation on the tribal traditions. “They are deprived of minimum health care because of lack of roads to the village. They are not used to taking medicines. The district administration has sent several teams to the village to check the trend.”

(prepared from media sources by Seema Kumari)

  health, Odisha, tribes