The Bombay High Court on Wednesday (Nov 12, 2025) slammed the Maharashtra and Union governments for taking an “extremely casual” approach to addressing the problem of infant malnutrition in the state’s tribal areas.
A bench of Justices Revati Mohite Dere and Sandesh Patil was hearing a number of petitions filed over deaths of infants due to malnutrition in the Melghat area of Amravati district, a tribal-dominated area where chronic malnutrition has existed for years. The court described the situation as “horrendous” and said “the government should be concerned”.
During the hearing, the petitioner drew attention to the fact that from June 2025 to date, 65 infants aged between 0 and 6 months had died of malnutrition in Melghat. The court noted that despite several ordinances since 2001, the problem persists like a plague due to lack of implementation of these directives.
“Pneumonia, not malnutrition”
However, the state government claimed that these deaths were due to pneumonia and not malnutrition. To this, the court asked, “Has the 2001 court order to construct a multi-speciality hospital in the area really been implemented? No response has been received.”
Challenging the state government, the court said, “This shows your seriousness in this matter. The approach is extremely casual and many things require your response.”
On documents submitted by the state reflecting the efforts made, the court said: “Everything looks good on paper, but far from reality.
The court directed the principal secretaries of the ministries of public health, tribal affairs, women and child development and finance to submit affidavits detailing the measures taken and appear before the court on November 24.
Published – 12 Nov 2025 21:41 IST
