Malnutrition stalks citys poor children …………Madhavi Rajadhyaksha | TNN
Mumbai: Eighteen-monthold Nasir Mohammed weighs less than half of what most children his age in the city do. At 5 kg, the Govandi childs skeletal frame and weak limbs make it impossible to miss his malnourished status.
What makes a mockery of government claims about Mumbai being a world-class city is the fact that Nasir is not the only malnourished child in this northeastern suburb. Twentyfour children in the Mohammed Rafi Nagar slum alone have been identified in the last month as suffering from Grade III malnutrition.
Blame it on their poverty or the pathetic living conditions near the polluting Deonar dumping ground, but there is no doubt that chronic malnutrition seems to be stalking children in this slum.
More worryingly, social workers from Apnalaya, an NGO, say eight infants died from malnutrition-related complications in this slum last year. Two children died in 2008, said Leena Joshi, director of Apnalaya.
The address is almost invisible to the authorities. State officials promised to send a team to inspect the children on Thursday only after TOI contacted them. The anganwadi workers say there is no malnutrition in this area, but only 41 of the 314 kids we cover are normal. They dont even reach out to many of the children here as they live in unauthorised slums, said Joshi.
Nasirs mother said he hardly eats and has frequent loose motions. I took him to Sion Hospital a few months ago when he had fever, but doctors just told me to feed him two bananas and an egg every day, she recalled. The family, which lives off her husbands paltry Rs 50 pay, has bigger concerns. Our home has just been razed by civic bulldozers and were trying to rebuild it. We cannot afford to eat bananas every day.
The slum, inhabited mostly by ragpickers, has several Nasirs. Take Saurav Kadam (2), whose emaciated body explains why he always suffers from fever and vomiting.
We take these children to hospitals, but authorities arent willing to admit them as they fear a death of a hospitalised infant will expose malnutrition in the city, said Dnyaneshwar Tarawade of the Jan Swasthya Abhiyan, adding that the infants die of pneumonia, diarrhoea or fevers at home and their disappearance goes unnoticed.
He said eight children died in Rafi Nagar in 2007. TOI visited one such family, which lost its youngest child last year to pneumonia.
Statistics collated by ICDS admit to only 15 Grade III and IV malnutrition in the whole of Govandi. TOI found many more in one slum alone.
BMC executive health officer Dr Jairaj Thanekar said, We have proposed that the ICDS be handed over to the BMC for better coordination.
Such cases shouldnt happen where health services are available, said ICDS deputy commissioner M Molvane.
CRY OF HUNGER: Nasir Mohd weighs only 5 kg at 18 months