Jhabua, India — Inside the drab district hospital, where dogs patter down the corridors, sniffing for food, Ratan Bhuria’s children are curled together in the malnutrition ward, hovering at the edge of starvation. His daughter, Nani, is 4 and weighs 20 pounds. His son, Jogdiya, is 2 and weighs only eight. Landless and illiterate, drowned by debt, Mr. Bhuria and his ailing children have staggered into the hospital ward after falling...

The Sample Registration Survey (SRS)-2008 puts the Infant Mortality Rate in Madhya Pradesh at 70/1000 live births. The total number of births in the State for 2008-09 according to the State Department of Public Health and Family Welfare was 17,51,243. According to the IMR of 70/1000 live birth, the absolute figure for total infant deaths for 2008-09 would stand at 122,587. In his written reply to Congress MLA Mahendra Singh...

Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is often feted for development work. But it seems the progress has not reached the remote, rural areas of the state — certainly not the tribal district of Jhabua. At least 46 children have reportedly died of malnutrition and starvation in the district since last October. But the authorities refuse to even acknowledge the problem, let alone take any action. Most of the deaths have been...

Spiralling prices of pulses have shown India’s dependence on imports. Pulses are integral to India’s diet but not its food policy. As a result, supply cannot meet demand. What are the consequences and solutions? Surendra Nath has switched to eating grass-pea, though he knows it is not good for health. But so is tobacco, he argues. He cannot do without pulses and pigeon-pea selling at Rs 100 a kg is beyond...

According to a press release of the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), 28 tribal children have become victims of malnutrition in Madhya Pradesh. The AHRC believes that the families of the children were deprived of their right to food under existing government schemes and right to health. Attributing its information to field reports by MP Lok Sangharsh Sanjha Manch and the state’s Right to Food Campaign, the AHRC has expressed...