vagyakartha

As I write this on July 28, India is justifiably enraged over the terrorist acts that killed fifty people in Bangalore and Ahmedabad. TV news channels have filled endless hours broadcasting pictures of the affected sites. Thirty-something anchors criticized our “bungling” security forces and so contorted their faces in anger that Amrish Puri would have been pleased. Political leaders have condemned, yet again, these acts of cowardice and vowed, yet again, that such acts will never crack India’s unity, even as unseen millions were quietly blaming an entire community for the acts of an abhorrent few. Talk shows were filled with clueless panelists airing ill informed opinions (what makes these channels think that a glamorous visage makes up for the total absence of relevant expertise?).

Yet, during the four days since the bombs first exploded serially in Bangalore, over ten thousand children have been killed. In India. After weeks of excruciatingly painful suffering. Unnoticed. Unreported. Unattended.

A posting on the UNICEF web site, dated July 17, says: The world cannot continue with business as usual …. children die before their fifth birthday from easily preventable and readily treatable causes …. What is baffling is that a vast majority of these deaths could be easily averted. ….. in India alone more than 1 million child lives could be saved from scaling up known and proven cost effective interventions …. Simple measures like exclusive breastfeeding for six months can prevent child deaths by a good 16%. It is believed that other easy measures could prevent 90% of diarrhea deaths, 62% of pneumonia deaths, 100% measles deaths, 92% malaria deaths, 44% HIV/AIDS deaths and 52% neonatal fatalities.

This has been known for years. So, we cannot blame just the current set of governments. Various organizations - the Indian Academy of Pediatrics, UNICEF, USAID, ICICI, the Gates Foundation and NGOs like Siru Thuli and the Naandi Foundation - have attempted to highlight this serious national issue and have spent considerable time, effort and money on it. Yet, the numbers keep increasing year after year.

Compare these deaths with those highly publicised deaths of the past few days. In one case, a person standing near a fruit vendor is hit by shrapnel from a bomb and dies instantaneously, with no prolonged suffering. In the other, a child suffers through weeks of debilitating and unbearably painful diarrhea, flesh and muscle shrinking down to the bone, as the poverty and sorrow stricken mother and siblings writhe in helpless horror. No one outside their village hears of the death, no one else mourns. No prime minister comforts them. No groomed, self-appointed conscience of the nation wails on TV. No promises are made, no steps taken. No column-inches are wasted.

Who are the culprits in search of whom we should launch a nationwide manhunt? Under which legal statute? Should we charge them with culpable mass homicide not amounting to murder? If there is no such crime in our penal code, why not? What crime do we charge ourselves with? When one hundred rupees or less can save a child’s life, should we be charged with mute complicity?

Our minister for Women and Child Welfare wants a defamation suit to be filed against the UP state government in the Arushi Talwar case. What suit should we file against her? Or, against the health minister?

There was a great national furor a couple of years ago when traces of pesticides were found in bottles of Pepsi. The head of the institute that tested those drinks has since become a major public figure. I wrote to her then and suggested that she turn her attention away from bottled drinks to the water that over 95% of Indians drink. I received a reply thanking me for the suggestion and saying that they would consider it when their then current slate of projects was completed. I had also suggested that her institute test the piped water in our cities and widely publicize the results. I have yet to see any such results publicized.

With good reason. There is no such thing as truly safe piped water (or well, lake, or river water) in India. Do you recall those televised bundles of currency? They were far outnumbered by bottles of safe drinking water. Tap water isn’t safe even in the Lok Sabha. Shame, shame! Contaminated water is the main cause of all the illnesses that rob our children of their lives.

The Indian Constitution says, under the Directive Principles of State Policy, (39) Certain principles of policy to be followed by the State – “… (f) that children are given opportunities and facilities to develop in a healthy manner ……”.

We are giving our children the opportunity to die young, painfully.

Labels: child mortality, India, water

# posted by Vagyakartha : 11:44 PM