Kol and Mawasi tribes of Satna MP die of hunger

Frontline  Volume 25 - Issue 22 :: Oct. 25-Nov. 07, 2008 DEPRIVATION Dying of hunger AJOY ASHIRWAD MAHAPRASHASTA in Satna Malnourished tribal children die because ICDS schemes are all but non-existent, and the government is in denial. PRAMOD PRADHAN  At Hardua village in Ucchera block of Satna district, a child with Grade 3 malnourishment and suffering from skin infection. THE final five kilometres to Ramnagar (Khokla), as the village is officially called, in Satna district of Madhya Pradesh has to be done on foot down a hill thick with shrubs and bushes. As we enter the village, eager eyes scan us for food or some other kind of livelihood support only to droop in disappointment once they learn that the wait has been in vain. The people of the Kol and Mawasi tribes who inhabit this village are a desperate lot: they have neither employment nor food, and their malnourished children are dying. In the past four months at least four children have died and those standing by the side of their elders had protruding stomachs, sunken eyes, wrinkled legs and slightly deformed heads, all symptoms of malnutrition.   more