Thin or devoid of nutrition? Tribal deaths in focus

HC says state should focus on controlling deaths in tribal belt and prevent them from going to tantriks

Does “thin” mean ‘not fat’ or ‘devoid of nutrition’? The physical appearance of the state’s tribals became the talking point in the Bombay High Court on Monday, when the state government said it is finding it difficult to bring the tribal community into the mainstream vis-à-vis the health sector.

The HC was hearing a decade-old PIL filed by activist Rajendra Burma, highlighting the large number of deaths of children, and pregnant and lactating mothers in the tribal Melghat region of Maharashtra due to malnutrition. The government said the main reason for the deaths is that the community doesn’t want to give up its “orthodox lifestyle” and traditions.

Advocate General Ashutosh Kumbhakoni for the state said, “The state cannot take steps to bring them into the mainstream by obliterating them from their lifestyle. These people are very thin… in fact, there is no person in the community who is fat,” Kumbhakoni submitted. He said two main reasons for malnutrition are child marriage and the fact that tribals prefer to visit “tantriks” and not health workers. He submitted an affidavit stating that meetings have been conducted to appoint officials to implement all the schemes and policies at the ground level for tribals.

On Monday, when the matter was called out, Burma told the bench that since the previous hearing (September 13), there have been seven deaths in Chikhaldhara and Dharni areas.

The bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Girish Kulkarni then asked the state to focus on controlling the high deaths in these regions and then gradually work towards bringing the community into the mainstream, without disturbing their lifestyle.

Full report on www.freepressjournal.in