INTEREST BURDEN-Not the Full Picture

Politics of Health WHAT can one say about tragedies which, given the level of knowledge and technology and the resources on hand are easily avoidable, yet occur repeatedly? The children who died in Thane district, near Bombay, were not the first victims of gross neglect, nor will they be the last. The incident thus indicts not just the department of health or the state government, but the entire gamut of policies and programmes which make for a situation where 35 malnourished children die from not so complicated an illness, not so far away from the edge of a sprawling Bombay. For whatever the detailed findings eventually of the cause of the deaths, the fact remains that the tribal districts of the state are some of the most neglected not only in terms of health facilities but in terms of basic infrastructure, employment opportunities, food, etc.