[Malnutrition] 6,852 child deaths in Maharashtra in last 3 years; 601 deceased infants born from child marriages: State to Bombay High Court

A total of 6,852 children died in Maharashtra due to malnutrition in the last three years, the Bombay High Court was informed by the State government on Monday..Out of that, 601 children who passed away were born to minor mothers, the report submitted by the State government said. The figures formed part of a report submitted by the State in compliance with the order dated March 14, 2022 by which the High Court had directed district collectors and magistrate across Maharashtra to conduct a survey and identify areas where the instances of child marriages are prevalent.The survey was supervised by a 3-member committee of Rajendra Bharud, IAS Commissioner of Tribal Research & Training Institute, GV Deore, Deputy Commissioner of Integrated Child Development Services and Dr. DG Chauhan, Assistant Director of State Health Department.It included figures collected for a span of 3 years from 2019 to 2022 from 16 tribal districts of Maharashtra.The survey was conducted by Anganwadi Sevikas and ASHA sevikas.The report further said that over 1.36 lakh children are affected by the malnutrition in the State out of which over 14,000 children were born to mothers who were minors..The report also highlighted that a total of 26,059 children were severely affected by malnutrition and 3,000 of such children were born to minor mothers. There were over 1,10,674 children who were moderately affected by malnutrition and about 11,652 children were born to girls who had not attained the age of 18 years. .A Bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice VG Bisht was hearing a PIL raising concerns over malnutrition deaths in tribal areas of Maharashtra.During the the previous hearing, CJ Datta had raised the issue of prevalence of child marriages in the tribal pockets leading to pregnancies, which was a probable cause of malnutrition.Advocate General Ashutosh Kumbhakoni informed the Court on Monday that to find out the number of child marriages in the State which was alleged to be connected to the malnutrition, the authorities first examined numbers of the malnourished children and then traced their parents to find out how many mothers were below the age of 18 years of age..The Advocate General also submitted that due to timely intervention by the State officials, there had been 1,541 cases in the last 3 years where child marriages had been successfully prevented.The Court suggested that it is essential to sensitize elders of the tribal community with regard to the high number of child marriages prevalent in tribal community to make them aware of the ill effects of the child marriages as well as violation of rights of children as enumerated in multiple legislations. "We hope and trust that the government would not leave any stone unturned to appropriately implement the provisions of the legislation which have been used for benefits of children, more particularly girl children among tribal communities," the Bench stated. The Bench also permitted the petitioners as well as other parties interested in securing the interest of the tribal community to respond to the report. The 3-member committee was permitted to continue with its efforts to sensitize the community about ill effects of child marriages and prevent the same while ensuring that the age old customs, rituals and culture do not come in the way of the health of the community.