[Reader-list] Reg: Set - 2

[Rakesh Iyer]

Theme: Right to Food

Source: Tehelka

Date: *From Tehelka Magazine, Vol 7, Issue 18, Dated May 08, 2010*

Link: http://www.tehelka.com/story_main44.asp?filename=cr080510a_handful.asp

Article:

*A Handful of Pebbles

**In the land that once sheltered Lord Ram, Mawasi tribals tell **SHRIYA
MOHAN** that they struggle to feed their children every day*

IN PATNI, a remote village in Satna district of Madhya Pradesh, sevenmonth-
old Sandeep is playing in the mud. He finds a pumpkin seed in the dust and
promptly puts it into his mouth. A tiny piece of cow dung, a pebble, a
fallen leaf and finally the sole of a rubber slipper follow the pumpkin
seed. For Sandeep and the children in the 300- odd families in the village,
this is their daily breakfast spread.

As legend goes, Chitrakoot jungles or present day Satna is divine land that
once played host to Lord Ram for 14 years. The winding mountainous terrain
that the Mawasis call home today bears no resemblance however to the lush
jungles that Ram chose as shelter. The Mawasis are forest dwellers from
central India, who were once hired as gatekeepers, watchmen and orderlies of
native rulers — jobs that complemented their robustness and physical
strength. Today, poverty means that there is no sign of the famed physical
strength. Their primary concern is how to keep their children alive with
food that is sparingly available.

Sandeep’s village, Patni, is one of the larger ones in the district. By
eight in the morning, the men, women and older children are in the fields —
babies are left in the care of their grandparents. Since mothers spend all
day working in the fields, children, even those as young as Sandeep are fed
diluted goat milk, twice a day. Weaned away from breast milk, the children
are severely malnourished. As Sandeep drags himself on the floor, signs of
malnutrition are very visible — wrinkled skin hangs loosely around his
limbs. Anand Shriwas, an activist with Adivasi Adhikar Manch (AAM), an NGO
that partners in the government’s Right to Food Campaign, talks of how most
mothers leave for work soon after childbirth. “When a child is left in the
care of a grandparent or an older sibling, it is automatically fed much
lesser. Malnutrition starts right there, he says. If Sandeep isn’t given
proper care, he will become the thirteenth child from Patni to die of
malnutrition in the last 20 months.

Elsewhere, Chauti Bai is at the grinding stone making a side dish to go with
the coarse rotis she has just prepared. It is a mixture of salt, coriander
and green chilli, all in equal proportions, to make a semi-dry powder. Ask
her about dal or vegetables and her response is telling, “Last time I cooked
dal was for a celebration last monsoon.” Chauti Bai has six children — the
youngest is 8 months old while the oldest is 15 years. The frugal meal she
is preparing will feed everyone in the family — including two severely
malnourished children. Her youngest, Omvati weighs 5.5 kg, when a girl her
age should normally weigh 6.5 kg as per WHO health standards. Three-year-old
Raj Bahadur at 7.9 kg is no better — he should ideally weigh 11.5 kg.

The story of Chauti Bai and her family is typical of families in the region.
Along with other relatives, they farm with three acres of dry land.
Scattered rainfall and absence of alternate irrigation facilities mean that
the small holding does not yield beyond six quintals of rice and wheat to
feed 16 stomachs of both families. A good monsoon then means food supply for
100 days for Chauti Bai’s family. Add to that a 35 kg supply of grains from
the ration shop — food for 11 days every month. In essence, the calculations
mean that on an average, there isn’t a single grain to eat for nearly five
months. When the monsoons are bad, there is no food to eat for half the
year. Last monsoon, Chauti Bai’s husband was assigned 10 days of road work
under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS). Payments were
doled at Rs 60 a day instead of the guaranteed Rs 91. Now, Chauti Bai takes
a loan each month just to be able to afford their monthly ration quota.

ASTATE HEALTH department report states that 4,954 children below six years
of age have died in Satna in the last three years. Activists believe that a
majority of the children who die are tribal children whose lives are claimed
by malnutrition. The last time the Mawasis were counted was in the 1981
census. They numbered 11,012 —0.1 percent of the tribal population in Madhya
Pradesh. Over the years, their numbers are feared to have decreased;
malnutrition proving to be a significant threat faced by the Mawasis.

In a neighbouring village of Madlehai, an old police station doubles up as
an anganwadi centre. The building has half a ceiling, two walls and one
broken parapet and resembles a haunted ruin in the middle of the village.
The children from 100- odd families are supposed to come there for a meal
every day, but only 10 turn up for the tasteless khichdi (rice and dal mix).
The anganwadi is meant to be a village day care centre where pregnant
mothers and children are fed nutrition supplements, given vaccinations and
where the children are given pre-school education. The centre performs none
of these.

Problems at the anganwadi centre are not restricted to the building
structure, but extend to the poor training of the anganwadi workers.
Technically, they have to have their pulse on malnutrition, but ground
realities are different. In Kanpurgaon, another Mawasi village in the
region, Pappi Bai, the anganwadi sahayak or helper weighs the children every
month. Pappi herself has four children, two of whom are blind and severely
malnourished. Her youngest, one-yearold Rinki is 4.5 kg against a normal
weight of 7 kg. The skin on Rinki’s face is peeling and her arms and legs
are painfully thin. She can’t even crawl. Ask Pappi what malnutrition means
and she stares blankly. She has never heard of the word. Ask her why she
weighs the children every month and she says she has been asked to do so.

As night falls, men gather. Songs and a smoke of marijuana is the only
relief on hand for all of them. The laughter accompanies the upbeat music
and claims the entire audience.