Mumbai: A Congress leader who visited Palghar district near Mumbai, to see for himself the extent of malnutrition among children, has suggested that the Maharashtra government should without delay open up medical camps to treat village children.

On a priority basis, Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil, leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly, told Governor Vidyasagar Rao in a meeting on Wednesday, the government must provide timely food supplies from fair price shops to every family, which will go a long way in fighting malnutrition.

While this may be a short-term measure, he said “another area which needs immediate attention is filling up of vacancies in various departments including the medical field.” On one hand, unemployment must be tackled while, on the other, the government must take up schemes under the Employment Guarantee Scheme, he said.

Recent news reports about a minister being shunted out of a village in Mokhada block in Palghar district when he went to visit a family that had lost its 2-year-old son due to malnutrition led State Minister of Rural Development and Women and Child Welfare, Pankaja Munde, to make a visit under high security.

When Vikhe-Patil visited Khoch and Kalambwadi villages of Mokhada to meet the family of two deceased children, he found that “this was not the suffering of this family alone but of most of the families in the tribal dominated region of the district.

“The families lead a most precarious life where they do not get proper medical attention or even get their monthly ration (from the government).”

Mokhada, deprived of its basic needs, is just around 150 kms from Mumbai.

The Congress leader also said that various schemes of the government, be it central or state, have not reached the end beneficiaries. “The recently launched Phase II of Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Amrut Aahar is far from satisfactory when it comes to implementation in villages.”

He blamed the stoppage of grant under the former Village Child Development Centre scheme “which has proved to have the killer effect” leading to increased malnutrition cases.

Malnutrition among children is more prevalent in tribal and rural areas across Maharashtra, with a national daily reporting the state has recorded 9,563 deaths of children below five in the five months from April to August 2016.

What is unfortunate is that malnutrition among kids is not a new phenomenon but has been a problem causing high infant mortality in the past decades, too.