Melghat Tragedy
Story of the mothers in Melghat, a region in Vidarbha’s Amravati district, located at the border with Madhya Pradesh and home to a 2,768-square kilometre protected tiger reserve.
At least 94 children (up to the age of six) died and 46 were stillborn since April, 2025.
These mothers are mainly from the Korku tribe, accounting for 80 percent of Melghat’s population, and most are severely anaemic.
The average haemoglobin levels of women in Melghat hovers around 7-8 grams/dl as against the 12-15 grams/dl considered normal for adult women. In case of pregnant mothers, the levels are even lower at 5-6 grams/dl.
With child marriage rampant, many young mothers become pregnant far too frequently, often with only a few months between pregnancies.
Whether pregnant or nursing, these mothers follow their families with their little children in tow to distant towns across Maharashtra and toil away in brick kilns more than half the year, taking a huge toll on their nutrition.
A lot of times, pregnancies are reported late and hence sonographies are delayed and women do not get the necessary rest or nutrition because of the migration pattern.
The Korku community believes in ‘bhumkas,’ members of the tribe who identify themselves as healthcare practitioners, but believe in occult ways.
Over the past decades, multiple public interest litigations have been filed in the Bombay High Court over the high number of child deaths in Melghat, and the matter has been heard by different benches.
High court directed a delegation of senior government officials, including public health secretary Nipun Vinayak, tribal development secretary Vijay Waghmare, and women and child development secretary Anup Kumar Yadav, to visit the Melghat region on 5 December and submit a report by 18 December.
Under the ‘Amrut Ahaar’ programme of the Integrated Child Development Scheme, the state government sets aside Rs 45 for every eligible pregnant and breastfeeding mother to get a full meal from anganwadi centres. The meal comprises three chapatis or two bhakris, rice, a peanut laddoo, one egg or two bananas, a green leafy vegetable, five spoons of edible oil, salt and masalas.
Children up to six years of age also get supplementary nutrition at anganwadis.
In 2021, Bombay High court appointed Dr. Chhering Dorjee, to visit the interior tribal villages and subunit a detailed report on child deaths. He reported migration as one among the major reasons.
Suggested a mechanism to ensure that pregnant women migrating for work are able to continue taking nutritional benefits from near by anganwadi centre. Also suggested for local employment opportunities, so that people don't migrate.
Dorjee’s report and recommendations were discussed in the chief secretary-led Mission Melghat committee, which was set up in 2019 as per the directions of the Bombay HC.
In February 2022, the Mission Melghat committee decided to give every woman a migration card as a pilot project to track her movement and her health status.
We have had the Union government’s ‘Poshan Tracker’ app, but it hasn’t taken off very effectively in Melghat, and is not integrated with the public health department for us to have the data of where a woman has migrated to, whether she has taken her children along, and whether they are being monitored by any anganwadi there
There’s another ‘Gabha committee,’ also set up under the chief secretary in 2013, to look into child deaths in tribal belts across Maharashtra.
Families in Melghat take loans before the cropping season and need to repay them. The brick kilns yield decent money. On an average, those who migrate and work in the brick kilns come back with about Rs 40,000 to Rs 60,000 in the 6-7 months that they are there. Some families with more members working in the brick kilns also make up to Rs 1 lakh.
in many cases, working at the brick kilns has become a form of bonded labour. People borrow money at a low interest rate from the (brick kiln) owners, and have to return to the kiln to work and pay off the debts.
there is work available now under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and at Rs 312 per day, the wages are not bad either. But, most villagers don’t prefer to take up these works as payments are often delayed.
The state public health department also has a ‘Budit Mazoori Yojana,’ a scheme to compensate for the loss of work, for pregnant women from the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and those below poverty line. Under the scheme, eligible women can get Rs 2,000 per month from the seventh month of their pregnancies. However, there is barely any awareness on the ground about the scheme, and it also doesn’t solve the problem of heavy manual labour and missed nutrition in the early months of pregnancy.
