Efforts to counsel Lambada tribal women on the importance of protecting girl child notwithstanding, the Women and Child Welfare Department is worried over the increasing incidents of death of infants in the tribal hamlets in the district. Krishna District Women Development and Child Welfare Department Project Director K. Krishna Kumari admitted that instances of killing of infants were reported from some areas.
“Instructions have been given to the ICDS staff, Anganwadi teachers and workers to keep a watch on pregnant women before and after the delivery,” she said. According to senior officials, with the department stepping up vigil on the hamlets, tribal women are resorting to steps like exposing the just-born babies to direct sunlight and not feeding them properly. This, according to them, was a deliberate bid to avoid complications like registration of medico legal cases.
Tribal women, it is said, were neglecting female babies suffering from diarrhoea, fever and other chronic diseases. The situation is alarming in some tribal hamlets, said Tiruvuru Child Development Project Officer M. Ankamamba.
“It is a fact that girl child is neglected in many Lambada families in A. Konduru, Gampalagudem and parts of Vissannapeta mandals. The problem is more in Repudi Thanda, Kummariguntla Thanda and other tribal hamlets,” said an Anganwadi teacher working in Tiruvur division.
