Unborn Legacies

Tribal infants continue to die in a state with India’s best healthcare, a startling indictment of the failure of public health schemes.

- Jeemon Jacob

The grave was small, barely two feet deep. Pazh a niswami consigned the shrouded body of his seven­month­old grand­ child Prayaga into the hole as his grieving family looked on. The set ting for this solemn ceremony on October 1 was Attappadi, a forest paradise nestled in the mist­soaked valley in the Nilgiri hills of the Western Ghats. For the past six years, death has stalked the tribal hamlets of this administrative block in Palakkad district. Prayaga was among the latest of the 123 babies who have died since 2010. The 2016 figures are still being contested, but the first two weeks of November saw three casualties. The Attappadi deaths first raised a storm in 2013, seen as an anachronism in a state with India’s lowest infant mor­tality rate (IMR). Only 12 infants die for every 1,000 born in Kerala (the national average is 40 deaths).

The official data for up to Nov­ember 18 says the figure is eight deaths (NGO Thampu puts the figure at 11) but then it also mentions six intra­uterine foetal deaths. The offi­cial count of abortions is 26, but that could be much higher as just one hos­pital, the Kottathara Tribal Speciality Hospital which handles around 30 per cent of the pregnancy cases in the area, has reported 23 so far this year. Seen together with the fact that this year has seen only 735 births so far in Attappadi’s three panchayats, and infant mortality statistics for the area are sure to be a blot again in the Kerala health department’s records.