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state | mizoram

Born to suffer High child mortality, poor orphanages put Mizoram to shame. Ratnadeep Choudhury finds more on this.

Children and orphans are in the back seat in Mizoram. The state that boasts of its high literacy rate – is now also high on child mortality cases. The condition of the orphanages in the sate is very alarming as is the health care apparatus of children. At least 608 children died during 2007-08 as compared to 258 in last year, ringing the alarm bells. State’s Health and Family Welfare department has been embarrassed more then once over the spurt in child mortality cases in the state. The state government has now initiated steps to provide better 36

June 08

state | mizoram healthcare facilities in the remotest belts. The state government has been left in the lurk to trace out the reason behind the child deaths as there was no report of any epidemic-like situation anywhere in the state, except for ‘Mautam’- a famine triggered by rare bamboo flowering, caused after a long gap, causing rodent. Mautam has actually left the people in the remote hamlets of the state high and dry. Thousands of people have been starving after the state government failed miserably to tackle the rodent plague though indications were there from long before. Experts are of the view that the starvation may have lead to increase in child mortality rate but the state government does not subscribe to this notion. “We were stunned by the figures and have taken immediate steps to find out the reasons behind the mortality,” a senior official told a news agency in Aizwal, the state capital. Finding the situation grim, the state government is also said to have started separate investigation in the theory of possible linkage between Mautam and high mortality rates of children. “While there has been no report on starvation deaths, malnutrition and other problems linked with shortage of food and nutritious items might have contributed to the situation,” a senior official said while adding the theory was yet to be confirmed from remote villages, especially in Mizoram-Assam border areas of Kolasib district where child mortality was the highest during 2007-08. As a matter of fact - child death should have gone down, as the state government was equipped with better healthcare facilities while more doctors and para-medics have been deployed in villages as well as in urban areas. The state government has gone for a high level review pf the performances of the health sub-centres, primary health centres and community health centers operating in the state. As Mizoram grapples with high child

Smile that hides the pain: In obscurity, the children of Mizoram still wear the best smiles.

mortality cases, the administration also worries about the gloomy condition of orphanages in the state. An assessment conducted by the Mizoram Social Welfare Department and Human Rights and Law Network has expressed concern over the dismal condition of orphanages in the state and their failure to provide basic amenities to children. Official sources from Aizwal informed TNT that the assessment team of researchers conducted the study on 426 orphans in 27 government-recognised homes, about 30 per cent of which belonged to the Thutak Nunpuitute Team camp - the largest orphanage in the state. The researchers further alleged that they were held up at the home because the management was “extremely reluctant” to allow them to conduct the study. “Our team was not helped at all by the authorities of the orphanages

and the condition of the orphanages is depressing,” a research team member told TNT. The researchers also alleged that the orphanages committed many discrepancies in the naming of children, their lineages and maintenance of links with families. Almost all the children did not know anything about their parents and why they had been admitted to the home. “It seems that there is no effort whatsoever on the part of the home to maintain the children’s links with their biological families or relatives,” a team member said. The ages of 17 children in the home could not be established through interview or from the home’s register. Although the home excelled in providing co-curricular activities to the children, it failed to provide such basic amenities as regular health services, professional counselling, trained staff and social workers, the researchers alleged. “Above all, the home’s unwillingness to co-operate with the government could be very harmful to the many children under its care,” the research team members were quoted by a news agency. Now it is high time for Zoramthanga government to fasten its seat belts an press the accelerator for a drive to revamp the state run orphanages as well as checking the ever mounting child mortality rate. (With agency inputs) June 08

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