Ray of hope for tribal infants, moms

Community Health Initiative is working to reduce malnutrition, infant-maternal mortality in Thanes Wada area
Dilnaz Boga

Will help in probe: Siblings parents

DNA Correspondent

Despite the slim chances, Mayur Bhagat survived. In Waghwadis Shahapur block in Thane, two-monthold was breathless and suffering from acute nasal and chest congestion when he was rushed to Dhaknes sub-centre. But no doctor was present there. He was treated by a doctor on a field visit. Bhagat received treatment through Community Health Initiative (CHI), an initiative of Impact India Foundation (IIF). Two million tribals in Thane are reaping its benefits. CHI is a part of the National Rural Health Mission and is being implemented in the Parali primary health centre of Wada block in Thane. Since May 2012, it has been working to reduce malnutrition, infant and maternal mortality, said IIFs general manager (special projects) Neelam Kshirsagar. The Wada block is home to approximately 60,000 tribals. Under this programme 102 household kitchen gardens were generated and 423 BPL tribal families provided with material. It focuses on inexpensive nutrition, distribution of seeds and saplings, and providing horticultural training to promote the use of fresh vegetables to control anaemia. To control the number of children born malnourished

and stunted (33%), healthcare workers feel it vital to address adolescent girls. They covered 37,198 adolescent girls through counselling, de-worming, haemoglobin (Hb) estimation and iron and folic acid supplementation. Around 1,355 of them underwent Hb estimation to reduce anaemia; 1,142 anaemic girls were provided with haematinics; 71% of them showed signs of improvement. CHI also records antenatal cases to ensure they get adequate nutrition supplements from aanganwadis, said Kshirsagar. The staff track pregnant women and newborns and promote institutional births and immunisation1,739 mothers completed antenatal check-ups and 668 were motivated to deliver babies in institutions instead of at home; 601 infants were vaccinated. The school health monitor programme seeks to recognise symptoms of illness in kids. The findings of periodic medical check-ups are noted in health cards developed by the IIF. Gopinath Menon, head of the Centre for Development & Leadership and former state head for Unicef, said: The health check-up cards introduced in a few ashramshalas were not just a monitoring tool, but a powerful educational tool that helped understand different aspects of health monitoring.

Left: Aanganwadi workers get training on promoting institutional births and immunisation Right: A volunteer holds Mayur Bhagat after he was treated at the Dhakne health sub-centre in Thane

A day after Gayasuddin and Farzana Chougle, parents of Rameez and Rehab, returned to the city from Muscat, they met Vishwas Nangre-Patil, additional commissioner of police (west region), in the morning and visited Versova police station in the evening. The Chougles told the police that will cooperate in the investigation into their childrens death in July. After pest control was done in their flat at Panch Dhara building in Versova, Rameez started feeling dizzy and vomited blood. He died en route to the hospital on July 3. Rehab started showing similar symptoms and was admitted to

Criticare Hospital. She was shifted to Kokilaben hospital but she died on July 6. Gayasuddin and Farzana had gone to Muscat two weeks ago as they wanted to come to terms with their childrens sudden death. The parents visited the police station on Friday and said they would cooperate in the investigation. We did not record their statement again but will see if we need to question them and then record their statement, said a senior police officer, on condition of anonymity. Earlier, the police had said that they do not plan to exhume the bodies of the Versova siblings for a second opinion on the cause of deaths.

Will Prez come to Melghats rescue?

Kanchan Srivastava

Newly elected president Pranab Mukherjee (right) may have to deal with not just mercy please, but also with issues which his predecessors have left pending. One such issue concerns the villagers of Melghat in Amravati. The villagers, 80% of whom are tribals, want Mukherjee to fix the high mother and infant mortality rate in the area caused by the lack of basic health facilities, poor nutrition and poverty. This year (April-June), 81 children died and there were 41 stillbirths. We have written close to 12,000 letters to various presidents in the last 20 years, but to no avail. When Pratibha Patil became president, we expected a change as she hails from

Amravati, but it didnt happen. Health, social justice and tribal welfare departments also didnt do their share, said Bandya, who has been working on the issue for two decades. Dr Ravi Patel, an ayurveda doctor from Melghat, said: Letters were also sent to the governors of Maharashtra, but they didnt help.

The villagers sent a letter to the new president on Monday. Written in Marathi, the letter cites data about infant and child mortality in the area. It also mentions the poor state of primary healthcare centres (PHC), which are unable to cater to all the villages as most are located 10-20 km from the PHCs. The letter demands the

posting of a paediatrician, gynaecologist, sinologist and anaesthetist at the sub-district hospitals of Dharni and Chikaldhara to curb such deaths. Many tribal women are anaemic and malnourished, and thus prone to giving birth to a stillborn or dying themselves. Bandya said, Even if the baby is alive, it is weak and dies later as PHCs lack expertise in handling complicated pregnancies. Women and children from over 350 villages of Melghat are thus referred to Amravati, where the situation is not very different. District hospitals struggle with shortage of doctors and defective sonography machines. Suresh Shetty, state minister of public health and family welfare, was unavailable for comment.

Eight held for duping with cheap MMRDA flat promise

Sunchika B Pandey

When Mohammad Haroon Nizam went to get the keys of his flat at an MMRDA building in Kurla, he was shocked when the official told him that the provisional allotment letter was a fake. Last Diwali, Sudha and Jayesh (names changed) were promised a new flat in an MMRDA building at Kanjurmarg for just Rs8 lakh. Since then they have been making the rounds at the Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) police station waiting to record their statement against Santosh Chavan who allegedly promised them the flat at a concessional rate. The police have arrested Chavan and eight of his aides and are on the lookout for Govind Jaiswal, who is suspected to have planned the racket. The victims were not just promised MMRDA and Mha-

The police take custody of Santosh Chavan (left)

Prakash Parsekar DNA

da flats meant for project-affected parties at concessional rates, but also government jobs, said senior inspector Chandrakant Bhosle. Chavan introduced himself as Santosh Khadpe and promised a 225-sqft house in an MMRDA building. Later we found that he had cheated three of our neighbours too, said Sudha, who works at a law firm. Investigating officer Sudhir Nigudkar said Chavan, who

posed as an airport authority official and boasted of his contacts in the MMRDA, had taken into confidence Nilesh Awle, a driver from Vijay Travels which provides vehicles to MMRDA on a contractual basis, and got an official car with beacon. He also roped in the security guards at two MMRDA buildings with unallotted flats in Kurla and Nahur. He then befriended Agnello Saldana, who ran a photocopy centre, and Javed Sheikh, who helped forge official documents through scanning. The police also arrested Deepak Kurtadkar, Sachin Suryawanshi and Jayesh Solanki who posed as agents and sub-agents for the flats. Asked if any MMRDA official or staff is suspected to be involved in the racket, Bhosle said: There are more wanted accused in the case, but none from the MMRDA yet.