Sanjukta Sharma
NANDURBAR

The northern district of Nandurbar, through which the Tapti and the Narmada flow, is an impoverished and diseased underbelly of tribal Maharashtra. The 62 percent tribal population in the district (85 percent in certain famished pockets like Akkalkua and Taloda) has seen the Gandhi lineage swoop on their doorsteps, promising food and employment. Indira Gandhi came here five times. Rajiv came twice. Sonia held one of her first meetings here, after her official entry into the Congress party in 1998. The party has had a clean sweep in Assembly elections in the last 30 years. Manikrao Gavit, the sitting mp from the seat, has won every election since 1984.

The hunger in numbers

Malnutrition figures in Akkalkua and Taloda (age group 0-6 years, April to May every year) Thanvihir village: 3 out of 120 children are in Grade IV of malnutrition, 22 in Grade III Guliamba and Pimpargaon: Out of 35, 4 in Grade IV, 13 in Grade III Rampur: 3 out of 105 in Grade IV, 13 in Grade III Number of child deaths in Nandurbar due to malnutrition: 2000-01: 1365 2001-02: 2063 2002-03: 2385 2003-04: 2438 Till July 2004: 640 In Taloda, the taluka worst-affected by malnutrition in Nandurbar, there are 192 villages and 836 padas. In 22 of these villages and 336 padas, there is no electricity. 23 villages and 127 padas have no safe drinking water. 92 villages and 207 padas have no roads and are virtually disconnected during the monsoon months.

All grades of malnutrition are determined by unicef standards of age and weight. They are, however, disputed by sociologists Source: Lok Samanvay Pratisthan and District Health Office, Nandurbar; Tribal Research Institute, Pune

MAHARASHTRA’S MALNUTRITION CAPITAL

On the verge of this year’s elections, the party — poised to win this time around too, the public contends — is hyperventilating about victory margins in the five talukas of the district, rather than about the endemic hunger that stalks its adivasi voters every moment of their lives. The party’s rousing anthem of Garibi Hatao has proved so successful in this district that despite a whopping 57 percent rise in malnourished children by the end of July 2004 (source: District Health Office, Nandurbar), the Congress party is loath to acknowledge that malnutrition even exists. All Congress leaders echo Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde’s refrain on child malnutrition deaths in tribal Maharashtra —“The figures are exaggerated. It is not such an alarming problem.” District Congress president Chandrakant Raghuvanshi blames it on the populace. “Tribals marry so early that children are bound to be weak. They believe in all kinds of superstitions and do not embrace modern medical treatment,” he says.

In the last five years, more than 1,500 children have died of starvation in Nandurbar. In 2003-04, the toll was 640. Three out of four infants in Akkalkua village in the adivasi-dominated district of Nandurbar are malnourished (source: The Tribal Research Institute, Pune and the Lok Samanvay Pratisthan, Nandurbar). The Shinde government and earlier the bjp-Sena government have failed to capitalise on Nandurbar’s natural resources — a low population density, its vast tracts of forest and agricultural land, and the Tapti and Narmada rivers.

Instead, shopping centres and seedy bars have proliferated in the town area. It is a congested urban microcosm where predominantly non-tribal, petty businessmen rule and vouch for the Congress — ‘Our Congress, our Sonia’ is the unequivocal slogan. Tribal women are seen around the marketplace with their diseased children, looking for daily labour.