Dubai: This week, a five-year-old girl died in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, allegedly due to starvation. Her family say that they haven’t had food in the past one week. However, even though the district administration of Agra, where the death happened, has acknowledged the death and the family’s poverty, they have claimed that the child died from illness, and not hunger.
The girl had been living with her family at Agra's Nagla Vidhichand village. And, according to reports her family had been without work for around a month; the father is unable to work because of an illness.
Pooja, the deceased girl’s sister said: "There was nothing to eat at home... not a morsel. We used to ask our neighbours for help, or sleep early to beat hunger. A brother of mine died during demonetisation.”
Reportedly, as news reports about the death went viral, the NHRC (National Human Rights Commission) issued the Uttar Pradesh government a notice, calling for the Chief Secretary to submit a detailed report within four weeks.
"A five-year-old innocent girl has apparently died due to starvation and illness while a number of social welfare schemes run by the central and the state government exist," the NHRC said in its initial observations, reportedly.
The report, the commission said, would have to mention relief and rehabilitation provided to the family and action taken against erring officials.
Responding to this, yesterday, the Agra District Magistrate in a video shared on social media, claimed that the girl had died from an illness and not from hunger. The official said: “…the five-year-old girl had been fed milk on the day she died.”
According to a news report, Prabbhu N Singh, the Agra District Magistrate said: "We found that she had been vomiting and had diarrhea for six days. On the day of her death she had been fed milk and had vomited. Her mother works as a daily wager. By the time she got home the child was dead. The family is poor but cause of death is illness.”
He added that a team of officials had been sent to the girl's village to inquire which of the government's social welfare schemes had failed her, and why.
The family have claimed they have neither food, nor a ration card, which is given to households that are eligible to purchase subsidised food grain from the Public Distribution System (under the National Food Security Act). They added that their electricity supply had been disconnected over a year ago after they failed to pay a bill of ₹7,000 (Dh345).
Twitter users including Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra wrote about the incident on social media, asking why the UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and his state government were not paying heed to the concerns of the poor.
Tweep @IndieGourmand posted: “No shame at all in UP administration - no responsibility for their failure in caring for the underprivileged! Hopefully the people of UP will elect someone more compassionate next time!”
And, tweep @sarithnnair commented: “Effects of the pandemic has started showing its ugly signs. Remember for all reported news of this nature, there would be thousands that go unreported.”
