12 children die of starvation in Rajasthan

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">BARAN, Rajasthan: As the entire country gets decked out for yet another Dhanteras-cracker-sweets-filled Diwali, children are dying in Rajasthan, and drought is the killer.<br />Already 19 people have died, including 12 children in Rajasthan''s Baran district. A majority of these deaths have happened during the last one-and-a-half months.<br />There is widespread hunger and hunger-related deaths in this area in south-east Rajasthan, bordering Madhya Pradesh. Where people have managed to stave off starvation and death, malaria and tuberculosis are taking their toll.<br />The tribe of Sahariyas is the worst hit. Since their food security is tied to the agri-forest economy, this year''s less-than-30 per cent of the annual average rainfall is killing them. <br />An average Sahariya family has been surviving on a few hundred gram grains for months now. In some places, people have been consuming rotis made of sama (wild grass seeds). Even these seeds are now scarce, as the grass has dried up. <br />People are also boiling <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">phang</span> leaves, a wild green vegetation, or eating meat of dead sheep. In some instances it has been reported that they had fallen ill after eating putrified meat. One person has apparently died on account of this.<br />A field report from three NGOs - People''s Union for Civil Liberties, Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samiti, and Sankalp Sansthan - says that the prevailing situation is extremely disturbing. The Shahbad and Kishanganj tehsils of Baran district are among the areas that are worst affected. <br />Such is the plight of the people of Baran that a family of five usually has to survive on half a kilogram of flour. Hence, they boil it in water to make a paste called <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">lapti</span>. Each family member gets one bowl of this paste. <br />A letter addressed to Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot by these NGOs has called for an immediate government intervention in this region. The NGOs have accused the state government of not accepting or recognising its failures to send humanitarian aid to the affected places. <br />"The government''s apathy has resulted in a complete breakdown of the livelihood support base of the Sahariya community. We would like to ask the government and the administration as to how many more deaths it would take for them to act in Baran? The warning was clear that this would happen but then why was it allowed, is the question that needs to be answered," says Komal Srivastava, Rajasthan co-ordinator for Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samiti.<br />The Rajasthan government, on its part, has denied that the deaths have anything to do with drought and starvation. Ram Lubhaya, secretary, Department of Relief of the Rajasthan government, told Times News Network: "There have been 19 deaths reported from that district. But, none of them was on account of starvation. People have died of diseases of poverty; pneumonia and gastroenteritis have been the killers". <br />"Let me also assure you that the sama seeds are of high nutritive value and cost Rs 22 per kg in the local markets," he says. Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samiti''s Srivastava has a rejoinder to this. She retorts: "People don''t eat grass as it is tasty. They do it because there is nothing else to eat".<br />Of late, the state government has begun to undertake a variety of measures to help the distressed people. For example, the state''s food-for-work programme will now involve more than 26,000 people, up from the earlier 21,000-plus-work force. <br />The state government is also organising free clothing and food for children between 0 and 6 years of age. Additionally, free food is being provided to all adolescent girls, pregnant women and lactating mothers in that region. State health teams are visiting that region and critically sick patients are being relocated to cities for better treatment. </div> </div>