Tag: children

Jharkhand to bear education expenses of children if family head killed in elephant attack

Source: indiatoday.in

The Jharkhand government will provide free education to the children of a family, which has lost its only earning member to an elephant attack, an official statement said here on Thursday.

All district deputy commissioners have been apprised of the government’s decision, it said.

“If a family head dies following attack by elephants, children of that family will get free education in government schools,” said the statement issued by the office of Chief Minister Raghubar Das.

The direction came following a meeting of the Jharkhand State Wildlife Council, chaired by the chief minister, on Wednesday.

Among others who attended the meeting were Additional Chief Secretary (forest department) Indushekhar Chaturvedi, Principle Secretary to the Chief Minister Sunil Kumar Barnwal and the forest department chief Sanjay Kumar.

Special efforts are being made to reduce man-animal conflict in Jharkhand, with focus on plantation of bamboo trees in the forests – one of the major sources of food for elephants, the statement said.

An “underpass will be constructed between Ranchi and Jamshedpur for the safe passage of elephants” along the forested areas, it said.

According to government records, 87 people were killed in elephant attacks in the state in the 2018-19 fiscal.

Between January and June this year, at least six persons died in elephant attacks in the Ranchi forest division.

Jharkhand death: Kin point to lack of food, govt officials cite illness

Source: indianexpress.com

Jhingur Bhuyia, 42, died in Dorhagara village of Kanhachatta block of Jharkhand on Tuesday night. He left behind two children aged six and one, and wife Rubi Devi, who attributed his death to illness and lack of food.

Rubi Devi said her husband, who used to work as a daily wage labourer, was paralysed for a year, and the family did not have any income or a ration card. Her husband’s death, she said, was due to “his prolonged illness and lack of food at home, due to which he could not be fed well.”

She said she had borrowed Rs 100 from her neighbours to buy milk for her husband.

Denying that Bhuyia’s death was caused by hunger, Deputy Commissioner Jitendra Singh told reporters, “Prima facie, the death was due to illness.”

According to Singh: “Two months ago, Bhuyia had a paralytic attack on his face and could not eat solid food. The family had a ration card in his mother’s and sister-in-law’s name and his family got their share. There was a request by Bhuyia’s wife to add their names in the ration card, which has now been done. Our investigation says there was no food scarcity at home. This is not a case of death due to hunger.”

SDO Deepu Kumar, part of the inquiry team, told The Indian Express that the “actual cause of death” will be known after the post-mortem report. He added, “It is a baseless claim that the family did not have a ration card.” Bhuyia’s mother Maso Budhni (now deceased) had an Antyodaya Anna Yojna (AAY) card and his sister-in-law Basanti Devi has a ration card.

Rubi Devi said, “These cards are not in our name, and are being used by my brother-in-law who lives separately. They used to give me around 5-6 kg rice, which we could use for a few days. For the rest of the month, we had to often depend on other villagers.”

AAY households constitute the poorest of the poor and are entitled to 35 kg foodgrain a month.

Rubi Devi said she received her Aadhaar card a few months ago, but could not get a ration card from the local PDS dealer despite going to his shop several times. The PDS dealer could not be contacted. “Before his death, it was a struggle, I had to ask everyone for food. Many people helped…,” Rubi Devi said, sitting outside her kuccha house. “Our food comprised rice and potatoes. Rarely did we have pulses.”

She added, “We have a small piece of land, but due to lack of water, the produce is limited to one season. We will harvest corn in a few months. This is divided between the three brothers, and we don’t get much.”

She also said she was never offered any job under MGNREGA. The MGNREGA website states that Bhuyia had a job card made in his and his wife’s name in 2007, but does not have any work details.

When contacted, the panchayat’s Mukhiya Rajwanti Devi said the family never approached her for any job or problems. “The family should have told us so that I could have gone to higher officials,” she said.

According to the family members, Bhuiya was treated at an “ayurvedic centre” in Bishnugarh, more than 100 km away. Villagers said they did not trust the public health centres (PHC) as the doctors are usually not available. Less than 2 km from the village at Kanhachatti block area, an additional PHC is run with three Auxiliary Nurse Midwives (ANM). There is no doctor. ANM Sulekha Kumari said, “Doctors rarely visit this centre, few people come to us. Deliveries happen quite often, but we face problems because of water scarcity. We get water in buckets from neighbouring area for deliveries.”

On this, DC Singh said he would have to check, “It is a fact that there is shortage of doctors and vacancy of 130 doctors in Chatra,” he said. An additional PHC covers population of 20-30,000 and acts as a referral unit for health-sub centres.

7 Children Among Eight Killed After Being Struck By Lightning In Bihar

Source: ndtv.com

NAWADA, BIHAR: 

Eight people, seven of them children aged 15 years or below, were killed and eight others were injured after lightning struck them in Bihar’s Nawada on Friday afternoon, an official said.

According to Sub Divisional Officer, Sadar, Nawada, Anu Kumar, the children were residents of Dhanpur Musahari village falling under Kalichak police station area and had taken shelter under a tree while it was raining.

The people who died have been identified as Ramesh Manjhi, 26, Chhotu Manjhi, Ganesh Manjhi and Monu Manjhi (all 15 years old), Nitish Manjhi, 12, Pravesh Kumar, 10, Chhotu Manjhi, 8 and Muni Lal Manjhi, 5, Mr Kumar said.

In addition, eight others were injured and seven of them were being treated at the Sadar hospital while the condition of another was stated to be critical and he has been admitted to Pavapuri in the adjoining Nalanda district, the official said.

Meanwhile, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar issued a statement expressing grief over the tragedy and announcing an ex-gratia of Rs. four lakh to the family of the people who lost their lives.

He also issued instructions for proper medical assistance to those who have sustained injuries, a release issued by the Chief Ministers office said.

Former Chief Minister and Hindustani Awam Morcha president Jitan Ram Manjhi issued a statement expressing grief and demanding that the ex-gratia amount be raised to Rs. 20 lakh each.

Headless, Naked Bodies Of 2 Children Found Buried In Jharkhand: Police

Source: ndtv.com

Latehar, Jharkhand: The headless and naked bodies of an 11-year-old boy and 10-year-old girl were found in Jharkhand’s Latehar district today, the police said.

Latehar Sub-Divisional Officer (SDO) Jai Prakash Jha said the bodies, found buried under a pile of sand near a house, were exhumed. The heads have not been found.

The children had been missing since Wednesday and their families had searched the village for them but did not inform police, the SDO said.

The villagers noticed a part of a leg protruding from under a pile of sand this morning and they informed police.

A police team reached the spot, dug up the area and found the two naked bodies. There was a locked house nearby and the team broke into it to find bloodstains inside.

Villagers told reporters that several ”diyas’‘ (earthen lamps) and some grains were found near the bodies and they suspect the two were sacrificed. The owner of the house is on the run, the police said.

Deputy Inspector General of Police Vipul Shukla said that it was merely a conjecture and more information will be revealed after the investigation is complete.

2 children die, 5 others hurt in Patna after office building’s wall collapses

Source: hindustantimes.com

At least two children, including a seven-month-old girl, were killed and five people injured in Bihar’s Patna after a wall of an office building collapsed on a hut following heavy rains on Tuesday night, officials said on Wednesday.

Seven-month-old Nandini and nearly two-year-old Suraj alias Vishal died in the accident and Gopal, 3, Jackie, 8, Golden, 10, Binod Malli and his wife Reena Devi were injured.

The incident took place at about 9.45pm on Tuesday, when a portion of the 8-feet high and 70-feet long compound wall of the office of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited’s (BSNL) deputy director general fell on the nearby hut owned by Suresh Malli.

According to the police, the wall caved in due to heavy downpour near R Block under Sachivalaya police station area in the state capital. Patna received nearly 110 mm of rains from Monday morning till Tuesday evening.

“All the families have been contacted. I personally interacted with them, visited the accident site and gave Rs 4-lakh cheque to each of the two families,” Patna’s district collector Kumar Ravi said.

Ravi said three of the injured people were immediately rushed to Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) for further treatment and they will be closely monitored. He added that he has directed PMCH to provide free treatment to the injured.

Eight people were sitting inside the hut while Suresh was outside and his wife Bilaiya Devi was cooking. Locals rushed to the spot after they heard their cries and raised an alarm.

Rescuers also reached the accident spot to remove the collapsed portion of the wall with the help of an earth moving machine.

Local, however, alleged that the rescue operation was started late leading to the death of the two children who died under the debris. They said the wall was old and in a dilapidated condition.

“We had earlier complained about the poor condition of the wall but authorities didn’t pay heed to our complaints,” Anil Kumar Singh, a resident, said.

162 children died of encephalitis in Bihar, 63 in seven other states: Govt

Source: indiatoday.in

s many as 162 children died due to acute encephalitis syndrome (AES) in Bihar till July 2 this year, while 63 fatalities were reported from Assam, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Manipur, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal till June 30, MoS Health Ashwini Choubey said on Tuesday.

Responding to a question over whether lychees were the cause of deaths, the minister, in his written reply in Rajya Sabha, said consumption of lychee was safe for healthy individuals, but in “malnourished children, it triggers hypoglycaemia and leads to seizures or AES”.

“A research study was conducted by the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), along with partner institutions, in the year 2013-14 wherein it has been found that when lychee is consumed by malnourished children, it triggers hypoglycaemia and leads to seizures or AES like picture,” Choubey said in his written reply.

On the basis of the study, an intervention strategy for awareness and nutritional supplementation was recommended to the state, the minister said.

A comprehensive study incorporating various other aspects of aetiology has been initiated by the Ministry of Health under Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

“In 2019, a total of 162 deaths of children have been reported from Bihar till July 2 due to AES. As per information received from the National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP), 63 deaths have been reported due to AES till June 30 from other seven states of the country — Assam (25), Jharkhand (2), Maharashtra (1), Manipur (1), Odisha (1), Uttar Pradesh (17) and West Bengal (16),” his reply stated.

He also elaborated on a number of measures that the Centre has initiated to support the Bihar government in the containment of AES, while adding that “as per constitutional provisions, health is a state subject”.

Choubey, in his reply, said Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan had reviewed the situation with his counterpart in Bihar and also with officials from the ministry.

A team of experts, consisting of public health specialists from various central government institutes, was deputed to assist the Bihar government in taking immediate measures to contain AES, he said.

Vardhan had also visited Shri Krishna Medical College and Hospital (SKMCH) at Muzaffarpur in Bihar, Choubey said.

The Health Ministry had sent another high-level multi-disciplinary team, which included senior pediatricians from various central government institutes, to Muzaffarpur.

Epidemiologists from the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), senior pediatricians, laboratory technicians are in Muzaffarpur since June 12.

The NCDC’s Strategic Health Operations Centre (SHOC) was engaged to monitor the situation in Muzaffarpur and co-ordinate tasks at the field level, Choubey said.

He said the Health Ministry had deputed five teams of doctors, along with technicians from central government hospitals, to SKMCH to support clinical management.

“A central team, consisting experts from Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), was also deployed at SKMCH. The team is also scrutinising and reviewing the case records of discharge and deceased patients using a standardised tool to know the reasons for mortality,” he added.

HC allows repatriation of 104 Jharkhand kids to home state

Source: indianexpress.com

THE PUNJAB and Haryana High Court has ruled that a child welfare committee is well within its rights to ask a children’s home located in its jurisdiction to send back inmates of other states or districts to their home region in case it requires to accommodate local children in need of shelter.

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A single bench of Justice Tejinder Singh Dhindsa gave the verdict in the case of Ferozepur-based Arya Anathalaya, which was earlier this year asked by the district child welfare committee to send back nearly 104 children of Jharkhand to their home state.

Justice Dhindsa in the verdict, however, added that “even such course of action can be adopted only after consultation with the concerned child welfare committees in the home districts from where the inmates are currently lodged”.

Arya Anathalaya was established in 1877 for providing shelter to children who had lost their parents or had nobody to take care of them, its plea had said in the court. There are 104 – 60 boys and 44 girls – at the home, all of them from Jharkhand.

The HC said that the State counsel has not been able to cite any provision under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 to construe that there is an embargo with regard to admitting children, who may be residents from outside Punjab. It, however, added that the child welfare committee wanted to admit local children to provide them the shelter but it was refused on the ground that the facility was already full to its capacity.

“If the petitioner Anathalaya declines admission to the children who are in need, for the reasons that it already has utilized its capacity to the hilt by admitting inmates from Jharkhand, no exception can possibly be taken to the decision of the child welfare committee, Ferozepur in calling upon the Anathalaya to send such inmates back to their home districts or states,” the order read.

Meanwhile, the State has told the court that the repatriation of the children staying in Anathalaya would be taken up with the child welfare committees of Jharkhand and put into operation in a phased manner and that too with proper consultation and co-ordination with the concerned child welfare committee of Khunti and Ranchi districts in Jharkhand.

In Bihar’s Darbhanga hospital, 50 kids die within one month

Source: dnaindia.com

A month after 170 children died in Bihar due to Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES), 50 children have been reported to have died in Darbhanga Medical College and Hospital (DMCH) in a month’s time. According to a report prepared by the Child Department of DMCH, 50 children died in the hospital during the period from June 01 to June 30.

The hospital authorities came in for a shock when they learnt about the report. However, Superintendent Dr Raj Ranjan Prasad seemed to make a casual affair out of the tragic incident. Commenting on the alarming number of children deaths, he said, “Deaths occur every year when children are admitted to the hospital. However, this time the total number of deaths is a lot more than previous ones. We will have to see if proper treatment was given to these children. We have asked the concerned authorities to ascertain the cause of these deaths, he added.” Reports suggest that DMCH got timely help from UNICEF too.

Nitish Kumar led JDU government in Bihar has filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court regarding falling health standards in the state. But the opposition parties have left no stone unturned to criticise the opposition. While BJP MLA Gopal Narayan Singh said that the health conditions in the state have not improved since the time Lalu Prasad Yadav was the Chief Minister, leader of opposition Tejashwi Yadav said, “During the said 14 years of good governance under Nitish Kumar in Bihar, the posts of 47% doctors, 71% nurses, 62% lab technicians and 48% of pharmacists have been vacant.

In addition, Former CM Rabri Devi accused the government of doing drama. She said, “The government has been playing politics over the deaths of children due to AES and distributing mangoes in the assembly whereas the conditions continue to be pathetic in hospitals. There are neither adequate doctors nor beds.”

All you want to know about malnutrition in India

Source: thehindu.com

Moderate Acute malnutrition (MAM): Children aged between six months and 59 months who are between the -2 and -3 standard deviation for weight for height (wasting) score.

Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM): Children aged between six months and 59 months and have a weight for height (wasting) score 3 standard deviations below the median, have a mid-upper-arm circumference less than 115 mm, or the presence of bilateral edema.

Severe Chronic Malnutrition (SCM): Calculated with the Z-score defined as a height-for-age index less than –3 standard deviations from the mean weight of a reference population of children of the same height and/or having edema.

Stunting: Calculation is based on height-for-age. It is is associated with an underdeveloped brain, poor learning capacity, and increased nutrition-related diseases.

Wasting: Calculated by weight-for-height. It is associated with decreased fat mass. Also known as wasting syndrome, it causes muscle and fat tissue to waste away.

Underweight: Calculated by the weight-for-age formula. It is a body weight considered to be too low to be healthy. It can reflect both stunting and wasting.

Key highlights of the report

The highest levels of stunting and underweight are found in Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra.

At the national level, among social groups, the prevalence of stunting is highest amongst children from the Scheduled Tribes (43.6 percent), followed by Scheduled Castes (42.5 percent) and Other Backwards Castes (38.6 percent).

The prevalence of stunting in children from ST in Rajasthan, Odisha and Meghalaya is high while stunting in children from both ST and SC is high in Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Karnataka.

Prevalence of wasting is highest in Jharkhand (29.0%) and above the national average in eight more States (Haryana, Goa, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Gujarat) and three UTs (Puducherry, Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli).

Prevalence of underweight is also highest in Jharkhand (47.8%) and is above the National average in seven more States (Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar) and one UT (Dadra and Nagar Haveli).

Food and malnutrition in the country

Over the last 20 years, total food grain production in India increased from 198 million tonnes to 269 million tonnes. Despite increase in food production, the rate of malnutrition in India remains very high.

In the food basket, it turns out that in both urban and rural areas, the share of expenditure on cereal and cereal substitutes has declined between 1972-73 and 2011-12, from 57% to 25% in rural areas and from 36% to 19% in urban areas.

The energy and protein intake from cereals has decreased in both rural and urban India, largely because of increased consumption of other food items such as milk and dairy products, oils and fat and relatively unhealthy food such as fast food, processed food, and sugary beverages.

The consumption of unhealthy energy and protein sources is much higher in urban areas.

Double burden of malnutrition

For several decades India was dealing with only one form of malnutrition– undernutrition. In the last decade, the double burden which includes both over- and undernutrition, is becoming more prominent and poses a new challenge for India.

From 2005 to 2016, prevalence of low (< 18.5 kg/m2) body mass index (BMI) in Indian women decreased from 36% to 23% and from 34% to 20% among Indian men.

During the same period, the prevalence of overweight/obesity (BMI > 30 kg/m2) increased from 13% to 21% among women and from 9% to 19% in men.

Children born to women with low BMI are more likely to be stunted, wasted, and underweight compared to children born to women with normal or high BMI.

Free meals planned to fight ‘brain fever’ in India’s Bihar state

Source: gulfnews.com

Patna: Alarmed at the large number of deaths in the state due to encephalitis, the Bihar government is working on a plan to start free evening meals for children vulnerable to the deadly virus.

The idea is based on reports by health experts that most of the children who fell victim to the illness had gone to bed on empty stomachs or had suffered from hypoglycemia or low blood sugar.

According to an official report, the disease has claimed close to 2,000 lives in the past nine years.

“The government is planning to start free evening meals for children on the pattern of the mid-day meal from the next season and also shifting them to temporary shelter homes during the peak summer when such cases register a huge jump,” federal minister of state for home and family welfare Ashwini Kumar Choubey told the media on Monday after holding a meeting with the experts.

However, the arrangement for free evening meal will be available only for two months during peak summer. Experts have found that the disease strikes the region once the summer starts and turns deadlier with the picking up of daytime temperatures.

Although some 20 districts are said to be in the grip of this disease, Muzaffarpur has been the worst-hit of all.

According to him, the government would also be making adequate arrangements of glucose, oral rehydration solution (ORS) and medicines.

“After meeting with the health experts, we have ordered the setting up of intensive care units (ICUs) in the affected areas from next year,” the minister said.

Bihar health minister Mangal Pandey on Monday said this year majority of children had died from hypoglycemia, which is one of the symptoms of Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES).

One of the main reasons behind disease outbreak this year was severe heat conditions and humidity. He advised the parents not to allow their children go out in the open sun.

“When the children play under the open sun, it causes dehydration and affects a child’s intake of food and water which leads to hypoglycemia,” the minister said.

In an official statement issued on Monday, the health minister said the disease has been occurring since 1995 after which various studies were conducted by the National Institute of Virology, Pune, National Centre for Disease Control, Delhi, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi, Rajendra Memorial Research Institute, Patna and Centre for Disease Control, Atlanta (USA) but no definitive causative agent has been found so far.

According to the minister, till June 28 this year a total of 720 cases of suspected encephalitis were reported of which 566 were cured whereas 154 children died.