Malnutrition deaths of Pando people highlight systemic failure

The primitive tribe was not classified as SC, ST or OBC, leaving them out of the reservation pie and welfare schemes

The death of 29 people (including children) of the primitive Pando Korwa and Pahadi Korwa tribes in Chhattisgarh’s Balrampur district between July and first week of October this year has not changed anything despite the State government claiming to have admitted 270 people in the district hospital, Ambikapur Medical College and other multi-speciality government hospitals.

“In July, August and September, 29 Pando Korwa and Pahadi Korwa tribes people had died,” Dr. Basant Kumar Singh, Chief Medical Health Officer, Balrampur, told The Hindu.

Behind the deaths and beneath the frenzied reaction from the government lurks a sordid tale of severely affected Pando Korwa tribe people who were never classified as either Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes or Other Backward Classes. This resulted in them being left out of the reservation pie and all the welfare schemes meant for the backward communities.