62 Korku Tribe Children Die of Malnutrition in Khandwa: AHRC

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has claimed that sixty-two children belonging to Korku tribe have died of “malnutrition” in Khandwa district of Madhya Pradesh since May 2008.

“All sixty two children were from Korku community, a tribe about which the outside world knows very little,” claimed AHRC, a Hong Kong-based NGO which monitors human rights issues in Asia.

The report claimed that malnutrition is causing death and migration of the child of the community, which in turn has led to decline of the tribe’s population.

“Korku community is gradually becoming extinct,” it added and underlined that though the death of children of this tribe due to “malnutrition” disclose their vulnerability and backwardness, it has not been included in the Primitive Tribes Group.

AHRC said that the human rights groups working on the right to food in Madhya Pradesh have witnessed that tribal children do not have access to the facilities provided by Anganwadi Centres under the Integrated Child Development Schemes (ICDS).

Many families, who lost their children, do not have Antyodaya Card, issued Under the Public food distribution system to the poorest among poor.