The Tharparkar district, close to Indo-Pak border, is mostly a desert area, inhabited by mostly Hindu subsistence farmers, who are now standing at the brink of famine due to poor rainfall for five successive years.
An eight-day old Kausar in Diplo, nine-month old Perkaash in Civil Hospital Mithi, and a six-month-old child at district hospital Chachro were among the four dead, while 25 children were being treated at the hospital, local media reported.
Although the deaths are officially recognised as drought- related, the medical causes of infant mortality have mostly been cited as malnutrition, pneumonia, blood infection, diarrhoea, birth asphyxia and haemorrhagic fever.
Tharparker has a large Hindu community, who form 35 per cent of its population according to 1998 census.