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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Food activists slam govt on hunger deaths

Food activists slam govt on hunger deaths

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published Published on Jun 22, 2018   modified Modified on Jun 22, 2018
-The Telegraph

State ignoring ground realities of malnutrition, busy trying to prove every victim was ailing, says Drèze

Ranchi:
Right to Food Campaign activists claim the Jharkhand government was doing precious little to arrest the circumstances that force people to starve and die, but was continuing to "shamelessly marshal" all resources to prove after every starvation death that it was because of illness and not hunger.

According to noted economist and activist, Jean Drèze, as many as 12 people had died in various districts of the state due to prolonged hunger. Yet, except for piecemeal and futuristic announcements by the state government nothing had moved on the ground.

Most victims, he said, were from the Dalit and tribal population, who had a history of living in abject poverty without proper access to social security benefits to various reasons. "When an underprivileged person survives on a half-empty stomach, prolonged starvation will automatically lead to medical complications and trigger death. Why can't the government see the larger picture?" he told the media on Thursday at a press conference in the wake of recent alleged hunger deaths in Giridih and Chatra.

Siraj, another activist who was present at the media interaction, said he and three others had visited Giridih following reports of the death of Savitri Devi earlier this month and claimed that their findings were at variance with what the government had claimed.

Savitri and her family, he claimed, were compelled to starve because of government apathy.

"The government said Savitri's widow pension was credited to her account in April 2018. But that is a half-truth. She had applied for widow pension in January 2014 and received her first payment in April 2018. Despite necessary approvals, her pension wasn't credited because officials had not linked her account to her UID," he said, displaying video footage of the local mukhiya and her family members issuing statements.

Siraj said Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGA) was in a shambles in Giridih. "Savitri's household has a job card (JH19005010005/12), but the last time she got work, to build a doba (pond) under the scheme was for 11 days in 2016. Neither she nor her daughters in-law were members of any self-help group. As for as ration card, when they applied two months back, the mukhiya suggested they go to the local block office and fill a form online. Her family said they went a few times but stopped thereafter," he claimed, raising the question why the government had not acted on the delay in her widow pension.

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The Telegraph, 22 June, 2018, https://www.telegraphindia.com/states/jharkhand/food-activists-slam-govt-on-hunger-deaths-239348


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