Four others severely malnourished
SEVERE malnutrition has claimed the life of a five-year-old boy at a charitable hostel in Jalna in Maharashtra. Four other boys, between five and 11 years of age, are in a serious condition. All the boys are mentally impaired and abandoned by their parents.
Doctors at the civil hospital they were admitted to confirmed that all the five boys had not eaten anything for 10 days.
No one knows where these children belong to, or what their full names are. A few months ago, they were found abandoned at the holy city of Pandharpur in Solapur district. For a couple of months they lived at the Swojal Mentally Retarded Boys Hostel at Barshi in Solapur and on August 13 were shifted to Late Shankarlal Mundada Boy's Hostel in Jalna for regular medical checkup. But on October 16, their condition turned critical and had to be admitted to the civil hospital.
After Krishna's death the four boys have been shifted to Aurangabad's Government Medical College Hospital.
According to the hostel administration, its staff is not at fault. Secretary of the hostel run by the Maharashtra Marwari Charitable Foundation, Veerendra Dhoka, said the boys were very weak when they had come to the hostel. "No one was ready to accept them, but we sheltered them on humanitarian grounds. We also took good care of them. On September 9, their health turned worse and we rushed them to a civil hospital, but the doctors refused to admit them. So we admitted them in a private Deepak Hospital, where we paid a bill of Rs 18,500. On October 16, they started vomiting and loose motions and were taken to the civil hospital."
V D Marathe, assistant commissioner of Pune's women and child welfare department, visited Jalna on October 18. Three officials of the hostel, including Dhoka, were arrested and later released on bail. No action was taken against senior administrators of the government-funded hostel.
The president of hostel is former minister Jayprakash Mundada and Badrinarayan R Barwale, founder of the Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company and recipient of 1998 World Food Prize, is the vice-president.
The state government provides Rs 1,135 per student per month to the hostel administration.
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