Just 125 kms away from the vibrant city of Mumbai is Palghar district, a haven for tribals. But this safe house has now become a place of their grief as they see their children being taken away from them by malnutrition.
Presently, more than 4000 children in the district are suffering from malnutrition and around 600 have already died because of it.
In a recent incident, a child named Sagar Wagh died due to malnutrition and when Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Tribal Development Minister for the Government of Maharashtra Vishnu Sawra finally took notice and went to visit the home of the deceased after 15 days, he had to face the anger of the tribe.
The anger of these tribals can clearly be justified as the loss of children is nothing that can be taken lightly. The whole village joined Sagar's mother in protesting against the minister, who finally left the spot after seeing the situation get out of hand.
The opposition Nationalist Congress Party also protested against the Sara by burning his dummy.
NCP Chief Vivek Pandit told ANI, " These tribals belong to a primitive tribe which normally don't express their feelings, but the way they ventilated their anger towards Vishnu Sawra shows how angry they were not only towards him, but to the state of Maharashtra. She lost her son who was sick for more than a year and almost 600 tribal kids have lost their lives in the last one year."
He added that the Government of India has stopped the funding for the VCDC program for supplying food to the malnourished children and since last year. I have reminded the chief minister as well as the guardian minister every now and then, but nothing has happened and these lives are lost.
"Now, the question remains if Sawra after Sagar's death went after 15 days to offer his condolences and was literally thrown out of the house, it shows their anger and the absolute failure of the government to save the lives of the tribal kids and their mothers in the past one year. This is a very sorry state of affairs and we condemn it," he said.
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