Negligence in state-run hospitals in BJP-ruled states: Congress

Each day, 1043 children die in the state and for reasons eminently preventable. In Uttar Pradesh alone, more than 1000 children died between January and August 2017 due to lack of medicines and shortage in oxygen supply. 290 children had their lives cut short at Baba Raghav Das (BRD) Medical College in Gorakhpur in August. 213 were in neonatal ICU and 77 in the encephalitis ward. Most notably, Uttar Pradesh has the highest Mortality Rate for children. 64 infants under one year and 78 children under the age of five years die in a year out of 1000 babies, shows the NFHS report of 2015-16. The infant mortality rate (IMR) of UP, India’s most populous state, is now worse than 2013 when it was 50 per 1000 live births.

The state government's rationale? Encephalitis has taken lives before.

If lack of oxygen is the cause of deaths, facts are twisted, and the media managed. The state continues with business as usual. The BJP supporter looks on, untouched and unperturbed.

n Jharkhand, 52 infants died at Jamshedpur’s Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College hospital in the August 2017. In fact, 164 children lost their lives in the same month in the last 90 days. This year alone, 660 children have died in Ranchi’s Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences.

Then, In Maharashtra, deaths of infant and children totalled 21,985 in the last two years - 17,944 infant deaths and 4,041 children. As per the latest report of NFHS, at least 64 children below the age of six died every day in Madhya Pradesh and its infant mortality rate is worse than what it is in some African countries. The MP Health departments report stated that 116 malnourished children died last year. Ministry for Women and Development report revealed that 25,440 children in the age group of 0-6 years lost their lives due to diseases like diarrhoea, measles, in the year 2016.