It’s been a tragic summer for too many children in Muzaffarpur, Bihar. The death toll due to encephalitis has risen above 100. Most of the reported deaths have taken place in Sri Krishna Medical College and Hospital. SKMCH superintendent has said that that the countrywide doctors’ strike would not have any adverse impact on encephalitis patients. But overall the strike is reported to have paralysed health services in Bihar, during an intense heat wave.
But there is no point in blaming nature. For example several children have died due to hypoglycaemic encephalopathy caused by eating the lychee fruit, where Bihar is the largest lychee producer in India, producing 40% of the fruit. The fruit has become toxic for these unlucky children only because their blood sugar levels are low due to undernourishment. Consider the several levels at which the state has failed these children – from making sure they are adequately fed to educating their parents about consuming lychees on an empty stomach to providing satisfactory treatment at hospitals.
Last year Muzaffarpur made headlines for a shelter home scandal where children had been systematically abused and even murdered. Providing education and healthcare are the basics of governance. It now seems that the Nitish Kumar government has been slipping on this job recently, instead of improving as it had done in the past. The JD(U)-BJP alliance also routed the opposition in the 2019 Lok Sabha election. When a government settles into complacency, it’s bad news for the citizenry. Children are particularly vulnerable, poor children even more so. While the quality of healthcare needs improving all over the country, the confluence of weaknesses in Bihar – from malnutrition to poor hygiene and deteriorating law and order – is proving fatal. Nitish needs to haul up the standard of governance, particularly healthcare.