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.
