File report on malnutrition deaths: PMO

<div class="section0"><div class="Normal"><span style="" font-size:="">MUMBAI: Following a report in this newspaper on Tuesday about the deaths in Maharashtra of more than 9,000 tribal children below six due to malnutrition—which occurred between April 2003 and May 2004—the PMO has asked the state government for a detailed report on the situation and the steps taken to deal with it.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-size:="">Acting chief justice of Bombay high court AP Shah also took note of the TOI report.The court transferred to itself a PIL pending before its Nagpur bench on the issue of malnutrition deaths in Vidarbha. </span><br /><br /><span style="" font-size:="">On Tuesday, the court asked the state’s director of health Dr Subhash Salunkhe to submit a report on the situation the following day as also on what the state government should do to tackle the crisis. </span><br /><br /><span style="" font-size:="">The director’s report may provide the basis for the court to provide detailed directions to the state government on how to deal with the situation on a war footing. “The TOI report may well trigger a comprehensive response from the government,’’ Dr Salunkhe told TNN.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-size:="">Dr Salunkhe was also summoned by chief secretary A K Mago and asked to submit a report which is to be forwarded to the PMO. Even though Maharashtra’s infant mortality rate at 45 per thousand compares well with other states like Orissa (95), UP (83), MP (86), Rajasthan (80), AP (66) and Karnataka (58), it compares poorly to that of Kerala (11). </span><br /><br /><span style="" font-size:="">Available data shows that between March 1996 and February 2001, as many as 29,420 children below the age of six died in the state. In fact, the number of children in the zero to one-year age group who died increased from 3,050 in 1996-’97 to 4,357 in 2000-2001.</span></div> </div>