by NEHA DIXIT
Malnutrition is a big contributor to the low child sex ratio in Rewa district of Madhya Pradesh. The girls of the Kol tribe are suffering.
The first white tiger, Mohan, ever found in natural history was in the jungles of Govindgarh in Rewa district in Madhya Pradesh in 1951. It was caught by the then king and imprisoned in his palace till its death. Located in the northeast part of the state, Rewa has the highest population of important tribes like Kol, Korku, Sahariya and Baiga. It also has the worst child sex ratio in the country, at 885 females per 1000 males and according to the Asian Human Rights Commission, 80 percent of the children in Rewa district are malnourished. While popular understanding of declining sex ratio is often attributed to sex selective abortions, the major reason is often gender disparity in the food budget of the family.
Last week, the number of dead children in the forest village of Dhurkuch of Jawa Block in Rewa district, reached a double figure. In the last two months, ten children, under the age of six, passed away because of various ailments due to malnutrition. In a family of six, Meena was the second youngest. She, 6 and her brother Ashu, 4, were both malnourished as informed by the supervisor at the Nutritional Rehabilitation Centre. Their father, Raghu was advised to take care of the nutritional requirements of both. Meena passed away two months later, Ashu survived. Raghu and family belong to the Kol community. It is a landless tribe classified as Schedule Tribe under the Indian constitution. In the last one year, Raghu got only 20 days employment under NREGA, the rural employment scheme. On odd days, he has managed to get work as a daily wage labourer in a limestone mine in the vicinity. Making ends meet was anyway a challenge. Gender based food consumption patterns suggest a natural male bias. Sita’s case, four houses away from Meena’s, throws more light.
Sita, 7, lost her eyesight ten days back. She is one of the 23 identified malnourished children in the village. 17 out of these 23 are girls. Sita’s father, Mukesh is also a landless labourer from the Kol tribe. With an absence of means of livelihood, raising a family of eight, four sons and two daughters, Sita is clearly the last on the priority list of the food budget. “Her’s is a clear case of malnutrition. Apart from lost eyesight, she is severely underweight. She may not last more than a month if she is not provided proper nutrition,” says RN Dwivedi, the Child Development Project officer in the Jawa block. Dwivedi further recounts that out of every ten cases of child malnutrition from this block, seven are girls.
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