Meet Rekha* and her mother from Jaitupura village which is around 30-35 kilometres from Panna, Madhya Pradesh. Rekha is 10 months old (yes, don’t be surprised) and severely malnourished. Her mother is not in good condition either; she is also underweight and weak. My first meet with Rekha and her mother was in the Panna district hospital where she was brought in by the Anganwadi worker of her village to the Nutrition Rehabilitation Centre (NRC). She was severely sick and by looking at her condition, the NRC staffs decided to shift her to the children ward where she could get extra care and treatment. Rekha is this small baby with a tiny head and thin body. Her weight is 3 kilos which should be more than 4.3 kilos for an average 10-month-old girl. It felt as if her skin is about to fall off from her body as she was dehydrated and unable to drink milk from her mother. She puked the milk every time when she was fed. She was moving her eyes all around and trying to see what is happening around her. Generally, a 10-month-old child is able to sit or grab things, sometimes walk and even communicate to people. All Rekha could do is cry when she is hungry.
I was in the hospital with Saurav Verma, one of my team members doing a follow up for another baby in the ward from our field area. The doctor present there told us about Rekha and asked us to help her out as she needed a blood transfusion and there was no other family member with them. The Anganwadi worker of their village just came and admitted them in the hospital and went off. Rekha’s older brother was also there. He was around seven or eight years old barely wearing proper clothes on his body; just a school uniform, half pants which was not even touching his knees. The winter was already setting in here and days were growing chilly. When we went to ask the mother about her daughter she did manage to respond or react to the questions we were asking. She seemed confused because she didn’t know us. There was nobody with her and she was not literate enough or knew anything about blood transfusion and the process. Even if her blood group was a match with her daughter’s group she was not in the condition to give blood to her. She looked extremely anaemic because of her pale yellow and eyes and tired expressions. It was as if her helplessness was seeping into us.
We decided to go to her village and inform her family and ask someone to come to the hospital. When we went to her house, nobody was there. The neighbour said that her father had gone to the jungle with the goats for grazing and there was no one else in the house. According to Rekha’s blood test report, her haemoglobin level was 3.7 (g/dl) which was dangerously low and shocking. We knew we had to do something so we discussed the next steps with the team and got her blood group tested. Our project coordinator, Nikita D’cruz came front to donate blood to Rekha as she was a match. I was left wondering how painful it must be for that little baby and her mother to go through all of this.
When we went back the next day it was the same, no one from her family arrived. We even tried contacting Rekha’s maternal side family. She was alone, no family member came to even see her once and the elder son was playing outside with the same half pant on a torn t-shirt on. We checked her reports after two days and her haemoglobin level increased to 9.4 (g/dl) which was a good recovery and we were hoping that she will get well soon.
We did daily followups and it had been four days since she was in the hospital and still, nobody was there with her. The natural reaction is anger towards the immediate family, especially the father. The question I am having in my mind is how painful it must be for a father to not be there when he knows her daughter is in such bad condition? My idea of father and daughter’s love is severely challenged here. I am in my naivety and irritation thinking – Has poverty killed the ability to feel and love in him? Her father takes goats to graze every day. He is responsible for all the goats in the village and people pay him for that. Even if he misses one day he will not get the wage for that day. His family depends on him. The cost to travel from village to hospital is even higher than what he earns per day.
Sure, he must be wanting to meet his wife and children but how helpless he must be right now where he knows if he will go then maybe his family will have to stay hungry for few days. Is he picking the alive over a girl child who he fears may not make it?
In the forest areas of Panna, with one of the highest Infant mortality rates in the country right now, can we really blame families for multiple childbirths where the parents are hoping that only some of them will make it through? The situation and the circumstances make them helpless and put them in a situation where they have to make some tough decisions. Not tough decisions like should I choose commerce or science? Some really tough decisions where they have to choose between bread for the family and life of a newborn.
For this last quarter of my India Fellow journey into the heartland of India, I am working with project Koshika which is an initiative by the alumni of the fellowship itself and is working in the forest villages of Panna Tiger Reserve on maternal and neonatal health. At our induction, 10 months ago in Udaipur, we spoke at length about empathy. Meeting Rekha makes me realize, how hard it will ever be for any of us to do that?
*Name changed to protect the identity.