Talking endlessly
about human development would be worthless and incomplete without quoting
Mahbub ul Haq whose brainchild was the Human Development Report. According to
him, development is to be understood in terms of the people and each activity
is to be analyzed to see how much people participate in it and benefit from it.
He supports that kind of development which puts people at the centre stage.
When we think about human development, children are a section which should not
be neglected. To borrow the words of the former U.S. President Herbert Hoover,
‘children are our most valuable resource’. It should not be forgotten that the
very destiny of our nation is dependent on this growing generation. Children
need extra care since they are our supreme assets and the human resource for
the days to come. It should be remembered that if they are not treated
properly, their futures would end up in danger. Health is a major factor in the
phase of growth of a child and if the children are denied the opportunity to enjoy
nutritious food, the condition will be worse than what we can imagine. This
report throws light on child malnutrition in the Indian state of Kerala,
focusing the specific case of Attappady, a tribal block in the Palakkad district. Various reports show that the current level
of malnutrition in India is unacceptably high. According to UNICEF,
malnutrition is more common in India than in the Sub-Saharan Africa. One in
every 3 malnourished children in the world lives in India and the levels of
malnutrition varies across different states here. The state of Kerala has a high literacy rate
(including female literacy), improved health infrastructure, better nutritional
achievements etc. and this is reflected in the various indicators of
development. Kerala has performed well in spite of its comparatively lower per
capita income. Though there are many reasons to boast of the achievements by Kerala,
it should be noted that the development of the state is uneven. Attappady,
being one of the largest tribal settlements in the state is one such pocket
which suggests that something is wrong in Kerala too. But Keralites, when
talking about the grandeur of their homeland, which is known by the sobriquet ‘God’s
own country’, fail to realize the plight of people living in the tribal areas. Attappady
had been in news since many years for the child deaths which occurred here due
to malnutrition. The infant mortality
rate here is 66 per 1000 against the state figure of 14.1 and the maternal
mortality rate is 7 per 1000 compared with the state figure of 1.3 per 1000.
Many cases of child and women deaths in the area often go unreported. It would
not be wrong in saying that most of the people here are deprived of even a hand
to mouth existence. They face many challenges and hardships to make both the
ends meet. People (even children) are seen begging for alms to have a meal and
the scenes of this kind are pitiful. NDTV news featuring Attappady gives it a
title- 'The land of dying infants and weeping wombs'. The reasons behind these deaths, keeping aside
the protein malnutrition are many and the ones to be stressed are as follows
Premature delivery of the infants
·
Poor or improper health facilities
·
High incidence of maternal anaemia
·
Ineffective functioning of the health and social welfare departments
and government hospitals.
·
Deliveries by people with no or ill medical knowledge i.e., fewer
institutional deliveries.
