BS RAWAT
NEW DELHI: Child and maternal deaths on account of malnutrition are common in Delhi where the mortality rate is shocking. An RTI information has revealed the starling fact that 244 child and maternal deaths took place in the last 4 years in Delhi’s hospitals.

Delhi, India’s national capital, recorded a whopping 70 deaths in 2014, which means six deaths per month.

The information was provided by deputy director CK Dutta of Delhi-based State Family Welfare Bureau in reply to queries by RTI activist Raj Hans Bansal. In 2013, a total of 64 deaths were recorded, which jumped to 70 the next year. In 2015, it decreased to 44 and in 2016, as many as 66 deaths were recorded, taking the total to 244 deaths in the four years.

Mr Bansal told DTMT, “The numbers once again raise a big question mark on the Delhi government’s machinery working in the health care sector, which has made tall claims every year in the public.”

Bansal said that although he sought the information till date but he got data from 2013 to 2016 only and not for 2017 and 2018.

The RTI reply reads, “It is to inform you that only information regarding total number of deaths due to malnutrition in hospitals of Delhi during January 1, 2013, to December 31, 2016, is available as per annual report on Registration of Births and Deaths in Delhi."