Hunger-death panel report by April 30

The State Government has formed a nine-member committee, headed by Food and Consumer Affairs Director Sunil Kumar Sinha, to prepare a report on the alleged hunger deaths in the State and also suggests administrative measures to minimise such incidents in future. A notification in this regard was issued today.

Sinha said that a meeting will be called very soon within a day or two in consultation with the convener and other members of the committee to chalk out further plan of action in this regard.

To remove confusion over the alleged hunger deaths in the State, Food and Civil Supplies Minister Saryu Roy had directed to form a committee, involving activists working in the field of Right to Food along with different departments related to it, so that a protocol is prepared to decide the actual reason for death of an individual.

The directive was issued in the light of the claims made by the Right to Food activists, in some of the recent deaths, saying that they were caused due to hunger while the district administration rejected their claims calling illness a reason behind it.

“Notification in this regard was issued today only… I will call a meeting very soon to chalk out further plan of action in this regard,” said the Director. The Committee members will visit the places first where such incidents have taken place and find out the ground reality, he added.

“We will visit all those places where incidents of alleged hunger deaths have taken place so that the ground reality of actual reason for deaths could be found out,” said Sinha. If a person in a family dies out of hunger, other members in the family must also get affected of it, he added.

“After studying all the facts and evidences in this regard in each and every case, we will submit a report by April 30 so that policies could be made accordingly,” said Sinha. The Committee will also suggest administrative measures to stop such incidents in future, he added.    

Apart from Sinha, the committee comprises activists, who have been raising the issue of such hunger deaths in the State. First-of-its-kind initiative in the country, this committee will help the State Government to arrive at a conclusion on whether a death was caused due to starvation or other reasons.

The panel comprises Director (Food) Sunil Kumar Sinha, Supreme Court-appointed adviser to Jharkhand Government Balram, Member of State Consumer Protection Council Rakesh Kumar Singh, State Convener of Right to Food Campaign Asharfi Nand Prasad, National Rural Health Mission’s Suranjit Yadav, a Nutritionist and a Doctor appointed by Director in Chief Health Services.

Two senior officials from Education Department and Women and Child Welfare Department will also be part of the committee.

Remarkably, Jharkhand has witnessed over half-a-dozen deaths in the last few months which were dubbed as ‘starvation deaths’. The State Government, however, attributed those to illness, old age and other reasons.

Recently, Lakhi Murmu (30) of Dhowadnagal village under Hiranpur block of Pakur died on January 24 after she was denied food grains under PDS scheme for the past four months resulting in her starvation death. Earlier also, 11-year old Santoshi Kumari, a dalit girl from Karimati village in Simdega died of starvation after her family’s ration card was cancelled for not being linked to their Aadhaar number.