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By Huned Contractor An estimated 5,000 tribal children died of malnutrition in Melghat, Maharashtra, between 1992-97. Since 1997, a group of volunteers has been working with the Korkus in this remote forest region, helping educate them about nutrition, sanitation and preventive health care
Nature provides. Not always though, especially when there seeps in interference from the human element. This is particularly true of the Melghat forest area in Amravati district of Maharashtra where, between 1992 and 1997, an estimated 5,000 children died due to malnutrition. When the media picked up this shocking story, it generated a wave of criticism directed at the government and its inability to provide for the tribals who have inhabited the forests for centuries. But that is where it ended. No solutions were found. There was nothing concrete in the wake of lip sympathy. Until a group of curious social workers from Pune decided to penetrate into Melghat on a fact-finding mission. What came to the fore was disturbing enough for people like Vinita Tatke, Anil Shidore, Manik Mantri, Sarita Kulkarni and others to initiate the setting up of Melghat Mitra, a group which works exclusively for the betterment of the Korkus, which is what the tribal community is known as. Five years since it was established with no funds nor an NGO status, Melghat Mitra has emerged as the only body of volunteers who have notched up remarkable achievements in this area of 350 villages, most of which are totally cut off from civilisation. "Our main objective," says Vinita, "was to save the children. That is how, during the difficult monsoon of 1997, nearly 260 volunteers went and lived with the Korkus to provide emergency relief support. This was in terms of preventive health care, environmental sanitation and nutrition to needy children." It was called the 'We won't let a single child die campaign'. The children who died fall in UNICEF's grade 4 category of weight/age ratio, which indicates severe malnutrition. Many of them didn't even have the strength to stand on their own. According to the authorities, the children die because the parents do not take them to a doctor. When a child dies the authorities enter it in their records as a case of diarrhoea or measles. Truth, however, paints an entirely different picture. The authorities and NGOs cite many reasons for the prevalence of malnutrition in the area. "Teenage mothers, large families, lack of medical care and superstition have led to these deaths," says Christopher Brian who works for Child Relief and You (CRY) in Chikaldara. According to him, the Korku belief that childbirth will be difficult if a woman eats well during the last trimester has led to underweight babies. Besides, the pregnant women must return to work in the fields immediately after they give birth, and therefore cannot nurse their infants for long. The government dole of Rs 800 to pregnant women has proved counter-productive. The idea of the dole is to limit the size of the family and give the best possible care to the nursing mother and newborn. However, most Korku women consider it an incentive to bear more children. Even a mother of 16 children is availing of the dole. Racked by ignorance and poverty, the Korku tribesmen are finding life a painful experience. The death of Melghat's children, in fact, is a manifestation of a deeper malaise in the Korku tribe. A visitor to the area will marvel at the fact that the agricultural produce of Melghat is worth Rs 10 crore. But, says subdivisional magistrate Dr Chandrakant Kulkundwar, "the tribals have no security or food for the next day. Benami holdings are huge and moneylenders hold sway." Today, registered as a trust under the name Maitri, Melghat Mitra can claim success in getting the Korkus to not only improve their primitive methods of farming but also agree to educate their children. The Korkus do not send their children to school because they need more farm hands. So while boys go to the farms, girls keep watch on their siblings. Elaborates Vinita: "We saw a relationship between education and the problem of malnutrition. Before we started, there was a primary school in each village run by the zilla parishad with the barest of teaching aids. The schools would often have only one room and one teacher, and all the children would sit in the same class to be taught by the same teacher. From standard IV, they would have to enroll in a residential ashram shala in a town, which is why there was a high dropout rate. Added to this was the fact that the inhospitability of the region did not attract too many teachers. We therefore took up the matter with the government and got an assurance as regards availability of teachers, an opportunity to study up to class IV and the provision of other facilities." More than that, Melghat Mitra has started abhyas wargas (study classes) and created a force of Boko Mitras (a child is called Boko in the Korku language) who encourage children to attend classes, and ensure that learning is fun and not routine. The Melghat forest sanctuary and Project Tiger Melghat (PTM), which fall in the Chikaldara and Dharni blocks of Amravati district, have compounded the misery of the Korkus. "Since a major tract of forest land has been ear-marked for the tiger project, the Korkus are unable to feed off the natural resources although this is their fundamental right. The authorities are very strict when it comes to meting out punishments to Korkus found stealing forest produce but willfully ignore the tremendous amount of illegal tree-felling that goes on," states Vinita. The Korkus have been suffering for long. In 1855 the British identified the region as a vast reserve for timber. The Korkus became bonded labourers, living in the 'forest villages'. Such villages existed until 1977, when it was the forest department that was exploiting the bonded labour.
The infusion of funds from the government and other NGOs has helped the villages to some extent. However, such interventions are mostly cosmetic and, the officials say, will only make the tribals dependent on government dole.
Fortunately for the Korkus, the efforts of Melghat Mitra are now beginning to post positive changes. "I think the project has worked because we were never an NGO seeking to bring about drastic reforms. We went as friends and we remain so," says Vinita. This informality is also maintained in the meetings held by Melghat Mitra every Tuesday at the Kamala Nehru Park in Pune. "Anyone who can spare some time and effort can visit Melghat and see how s/he would like to contribute," adds Vinita. Now that's social work carried out with the right spirit. Melghat Mitra (Pune, India) can be contacted at 91-20-5444663. InfoChange News & Features, October 2002
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