Biggest killer of Indian kids: poverty, ignorance

BLEAK FUTURE: Most of the children in rural India are malnourished and have a weak immune system.

    

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Keywords: Malnourished, PHC

New Delhi: Over 6,000 children under the age of six die in our country everyday from hunger and malnutrition even though India claims to have the world's largest initiative for children under six but still ranks 94th out of 118 countries on the Global Hunger Index.

But why India's children dying of hunger when the country's food grain production is at an all time high.

Jaharunnissah is making her way to her son's grave. She lost her only son to hunger about two months ago. Four-year-old Khusbuddin was nothing but skin and bones and weighed a mere six-and-a-half kgs at the time of his death. His mother says there was never enough to eat.

"Woh kuposhan ka shikar tha usko main doodh dava poora nahin kar paati thi paise ke kaaran is vajay se uski maut ho gayi (He was malnourished. I could not give him milk and medicines due to lack of money. So he died)," Jaharunnissah laments.

Abandoned by her husband, Jaharunnissah is trying to stitch her life together. She has a daughter and an ailing mother to take care of but after an entire day's work of embroidering sarees she is paid a meager Rs 10-15. The poverty is just a constant reminder of the son she lost.

"Aaj agar mere bachhe ka ilaaj ho jaata to mera bachha bach jaata is baat ka mujhe dard rehta hain ki paise na hone ke kaaran aaj maine apne bachhe ko kho diya (I had money my son would have got the treatment and he would have been still alive. I feel very sad that I lost my son)," Jaharunnissah, trying to control her tears, says.

A few kilometers away, in another village near Varanasi, six-year-old Shamim is also battling malnutrition. Unlike other kids his age, he is neither playful nor talkative.

He has the symbolic bloated belly (Kwashiorkor) and a weak immune system that has led to further problems.

"Isko TB aur gurde mein kharabi hai. Haath per fool jata hai, saas phul jata hai (He is suffering from TB and his liver is also damaged. His hands and feet are swollen and he also complains of breathlessness)," Zohra, Shamim's mother, says.

Shamim's father Khursheed is a skilled handloom weaver but with the handloom industry in decline, he has been reduced to a casual laborer. Embroidering sarees is just not enough to make ends meet.

"Din bhar riyaz karenge toh 50 rupaye mil jaata hai usske upar nahi milta. aur ghar mein kharcha hai 150 ka toh usske baad karja hota hai, bhookmari hota hai, yehi saab hota hai, dawa nahi mil sakta hai, pehenne ko kapda nahi milta hai(We toil the entire day and get Rs 50 but our expenses are Rs 150 per day. So we have to take loan. Even after that we face hunger and cannot buy medicines. We don't even have proper cloths)," Khursheed says,