Over 6k infants died due to malnutrition in Maha in 5 months
Maharashtra Health Minister Deepak Sawant on Friday said as many as 6148 infants died due to malnutrition in the state between April 2016 and August 2016. He further said that 881 mothers died between April 2016 to November 2016. In September, the National Human Rights Commission had sent a notice to the Maharashtra government over malnutrition deaths in tribal belt. 
On one hand when Maharashtra govt is expecting it's growth rate to reach at 12.5% in this financial year, but on other hand a shocking statistics were presented by Health Minister Deepak Sawant while answering one of the queries asked by Congress leader Bhai Jagtap on malnutrition.Replying to the question, minister Deepak Sawant said in the Council that during April 2016 to Aug 2016,  6148 infants died in Maharashtra and 881 mothers died between April 2016 to Nov 2016."I was shocked when minister gave these figures while replying to my query. When we have specific schemes and dedicated government machinery why govt couldn't do anything? It's lethargic approach of govt towards this issue," said Bhai Jaagtap of Congress.In September 2016, the National Human Rights Commission had sent a notice to the Maharashtra government over 600 malnutrition deaths that were reported from the tribal belt of Palghar in a year. The Family Health Survey 2015-16 has also referred that 83,000 children below the age of six years were found to be severely underweight.Reacting to this news, Women and Child Development Minister Pankaja Munde said that "We need to draw some special scheme for this. Health minister has been made head of tasks force by CM to look into this issue. Also concern officers have been added in this force. Coordinated effort required to solve this issue."In September 2016, Bombay High Court had also asked the state government to take immediate steps to tackle it and submit details of central grants received for tribal welfare. A division bench of Justices V M Kanade and Swapna Joshi was hearing a bunch of PILs regarding malnutrition among children in Melghat region of Vidarbha and other tribal areas in Maharashtra. In that case, one of the petitioners showed the court a reply received through the Right to Information (RTI) Act which said over 17,000 persons, including women and children, had died due to malnutrition in the state in the last one year. The court was also informed that 283 persons had died in Melghat region during 2015-16 and additional 83 from January 2016 to July 2016.