India Malaria Deaths Underreported –The Lancet

Article first published as India Malaria Deaths Underreported on Blogcritics.

British medical journal The Lancet published a report on Thursday, October 21, 2010, that concluded WHO estimates of malaria deaths in India are hugely underestimated. It said WHO numbers are misleadingly low. According to the World Health Organization, about 15,000 die of malaria (5,000 early child hood and 10,000 thereafter) die each year in India. Whereas the survey funded by the US National Institutes of Health, Canadian Institute of Health Research and Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute put the figure at as high as 205,000 each higher, nearly 13 times more estimates than that of ‘WHO.‘

Deaths at Home

The Lancet said most deaths in rural India take place at home rather than at health centers. So, it argues, most cases are undiagnosed due to absence of health personnel. The cases of malarial deaths reported by Indian government are centered primarily in a few states, called high-malaria states; Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and the states in the northeast India.

Malaria deaths in India are prevalent in tribal areas due to unavailability of health care facilities. With no lab test facilities and meager if not nil transport facilities force the tribal people remain at home leaving them untested for malaria fever. They get treatment from uncertified rural medical practitioners who offer general treatment for every fever case.

Andhra Pradesh Case

Andhra Pradesh, one of the four southern states is considered one of the wealth states in India. Five years back, the opposition leader and the leader of regional political party TDP, Mr. Chandrababu Naidu, toured tribal areas in North and Central Andhra regions and brought to light how the tribal people villages were reeling under the wave of malaria fever that left unattended until then. A local vernacular daily “Andhra Jyothi” also published several reports of malaria deaths in interior regions that were left unreported.

India's Supreme Court Lashes Out at Government Wastage of Grain

Article first published as India's Supreme Court Lashes Out at Government Wastage of Grain on Technorati.

Supreme Court once again came heavily upon the attitude of the government towards wastage of grains outside the government warehouses even as millions of people are reeling under hunger and poverty. The court asked the central government to ensure no more waste of food grains and all the targeted beneficiaries are adequately supplied.

Court vs. Govt.

 

Justice Dalveer Bhandari, hearing the Public Interest Litigation filed by the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), asked the Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Prasaran, attending for the government, not to go by percentage regarding wastage of grain when Parasaran said the wastage was only 0.07 lakhs but not 0.7 lakhs. He also said he had figures for two states, Punjab & Haryana, viz. 67,539 tonnes almost ten times to that of national figure projected by the government. Even 7,000 tonnes wastage was huge that cannot be allowed, the other judge in the bench Justice Depak Verma added.

It may be recalled that the Supreme Court had asked the government for distribution of the grain kept outside the warehouses due to lack of space, to the poor as it was getting decayed. The agricultural minister Sharad Powar responded orally it was not possible, but agreed to look into the matter. The Prime Minister Manmohan Singh went further saying the courts couldn’t interfere in the policy decisions of the government, a comment refused by the apex court telling it did not ask their opinion and it only asked them to deal properly with the question of hungry poor and wastage of grain.