City Reports

Rajasthan shocker: 32,000 infants died in the past 12 months, govt tells court

In October alone, 1751 newborn deaths were recorded.

pinkcitypost author img

February 1, 2018, 11:40 am

Array
rajasthan high court

Rajasthan high court. Image credit: Post staff

Jaipur: In the last one year, 32002 newborn children have died in Rajasthan. This disclosure was made by the state government before the Rajasthan high court’s Jodhpur bench. The revelations was made when the government was presenting its arguments in the case of the death of 90 newborns witnessed in two months in a government hospital in Banswara. Earlier, the court had directed the government to submit details of total deaths of newborns in the state.

On behalf of the government, additional solicitor general KL Thakur’s junior, Rishabh Tahil presented this data to a double comprising of Justice Sangeet Lodha and Justice Vineet Mathur.

The government submitted two reports with each covering 6 months. According to this, from October 2016 to October 2017 a total of 32002 newborns had died. In October this year, 1751 newborn deaths were recorded.

According to the data, from April 2017 to September 2017, 12085 deaths were recorded while the same was 18166 from October 2016 to March 2017. The next hearing, in this case, will now be held on December 7.

It is noteworthy that after the news of the death of 90 newborns in two months in Banswara’s District Hospital broke out in media, Justice GK Vyas, President of the High Court Legal Services Authority, had sought a report from Banswara District Legal Services Authority. Subsequently, the division bench of Justice Govind Mathur had instructed to present the data of newborn deaths across the state. Lack of medical facilities and illiteracy are the prime reasons for the dismal record.

First published: November 30, 2017