Why are children dying in state-run hospitals in BJP-ruled states?

Be it Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra or Madhya Pradesh, children are seen dying in hospitals due to gross negligence of the BJP-led state governments. In Uttar Pradesh alone, more than 1000 children died between January and August 2017 due to lack of medicines and shortage in oxygen supply.

In August, 213 children died at Gorakhpur’s BRD Hospital in Uttar Pradesh due to shortage of oxygen supply. Most notably, Uttar Pradesh has the highest mortality rate for children.

64 infants under one year and 78 children under the age of five years die in a year out of 1000 babies, shows the NFHS report of 2015-16. The infant mortality rate (IMR) of UP, India’s most populous state, is now worse than 2013 when it was 50 per 1000 live births.

In Jharkhand, 52 infants died at Jamshedpur’s Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College hospital in the August 2017. In fact, 164 children lost their lives in the same month in the last 90 days. This year alone, 660 children have died in Ranchi’s Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences.

Then, in Maharashtra, deaths of infant and children totalled 21,985 in the last two years – 17,944 infant deaths and 4,041 children. As per the latest report of NFHS, at least 64 children below the age of six die every day in Madhya Pradesh and its infant mortality rate is worse than that of some African countries. The MP Health department report states that 116 malnourished children died last year.

UPA 1 and 2 went beyond rhetoric when it came to the empowerment of women and the welfare of children compared to the non-performance of NDA. Keeping in view, children’s protection and welfare, the Congress-led UPA set up the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights.

Apart from failing miserably in every core issue right from economy to jobs, the NDA government has reversed the gains made in public health care by the UPA.