Mumbai: Over 13% students in 33 ashramshalas have sickle cell disease, says study

Across Maharashtra, the figures of those diagnosed with the hereditary disease have grown from four in 2008-09 to 2,192 in 2014-15. Currently, there are over 34,000 people who are either carriers or who suffer from the disease. The incidence is higher in Nandurbar which has over 60 per cent tribal population.

“Since 2010, neither has the district received electrophoresis kits to diagnose the disease nor the basic solubility kits to screen patients. There have been no screening camps,” said Pratibha Shinde, who is attached with Loksangharsh Morcha. The NGO visited 33 schools after procuring solubility kits from medical colleges and found that 1,555 children lived undetected with sickle cell anaemia.

In ashramshalas, ideally a health camp is supposed to be held once every three months, with a health card for each student. It takes, however, months before routine screening is conducted. In a remote part of the district called Shelagda, the government-run ashram school has no drinking water or bathrooms for students.

Even girls use an open stream to both bathe and drink water. It is, surprisingly, also where cattle come to drink water.

The ashramshala has 308 students and seven teachers of whom permanent teachers seldom come, leaving three contractual teachers to handle students from first to seventh class. When The Indian Express visited the place, there was no female teacher staying overnight to look after the 152 girls residing in the ashramshala. According to the guidelines, an ashramshala must have a female in-charge for girls, separate toilets and purified drinking water supply.

“We have to manage education and accommodation of all these children. We are short-staffed and over burdened. These facilities have still not reached here,” said Baban H Pawara, an English teacher who works on contractual basis.

With poor sanitation, scabies is rampant among children with local primary health centers receiving at least half a dozen cases every week. “These children wear same clothes for five days or more. Hygiene practices are not taught. In such cases, chances of skin infection are high,” said local medical officer Dr Malathy Thakre.

While ashramshalas should provide facility to wash clothes for children, in most ashramshalas in Nandurbar, children as young as in the second class wash their own clothes. Most prefer to wear it as long as possible leading to skin infections.

With poor drinking water facility in Toranmal ashram school, in January, the Toranmal rural hospital received six admissions of students with typhoid. Ten other students were also suspected of having contracted the water borne infection. “There are no chlorine tablets to keep the water supply safe for drinking,” medical officer Santosh Pawar said. According to district health officer, Dr R Pawar, the new kits for diagnosing sickle cell disease have recently been procured. “We have restarted the screening camps to bring patients under radar and start treatment,” Pawar said.

According to the project officer of the Integrated Tribal Development Programme, Abhijeet Raut, efforts are underway to construct fibre ashramashalas in nine remote stretches of Nandurbar where construction material cannot be transported. “We are also arranging for steel tanks where there is absolutely no drinking water supply,” he said.