How One Policy After Another Starved Delhi’s 3 Daughters to Death

A DRRAA report shows how Anganwadi centers and the PDS had failed the three sisters who died of starvation in Delhi.

(Photo: Erum Gour/The Quint)

A detailed report by the fact-finding committee of the Delhi Rozi Roti Adhikar Abhiyan (DRRAA) suggests that the collapse of multiple government schemes, like PDS and Anganwadi services could have contributed to the death of three sisters, who allegedly died of starvation in the Capital’s Mandavali area.

The Abhiyan, in its seven-page report, has claimed that there’s “no functional Anganwadi center” in Saket block Mandavali, where the family had been living for several years, before shifting to a friend’s rented room in Pandit Chowk.

Neighbours and shopkeepers in the area stated that there was no functional anganwadi in the area. People claimed that the Anganwadi was only on paper and money was being siphoned off without providing any kind of facilities for the children. 

Delhi Rozi Roti Adhikar Abhiyan

The report further states that a cowshed had come up in place of the so-called Anganwadi centre and most locals, including children, didn’t know where the centre was.

Did Anganwadis Fail the Three ‘Hungry’ Sisters?

But why are Anganwadi centers crucial to this case and what role could they have played in the death of the three sisters?

We know that Mangal Singh, the father of the three deceased sisters, once ran a food stall in Saket block, before he had to shut it. He then rented a rickshaw from a local agency, but that was stolen. A second rickshaw rented by Mangal too was stolen, reports the DRRAA.

By now, Mangal had heavily taken to alcohol and his wife Beena grew more mentally ill. It’s clear that the family was going through a rough time. It is possible that both the parents were not able to take care of their children, which led to undernourishment and subsequent starvation.

But the children could have been saved from starvation had Anganwadi workers conduced proper outreach programmes and surveys of all children in their jurisdiction, especially those living in poverty. At least two of the three children were under six, and could have been covered under the ICDS scheme, that is linked to Anganwadi centers.

Had the children been weighed regularly by Anganwadi workers and provided with one meal a day at their centers, their sustained malnutrition could have been corrected. Since no Anganwadi worker or helper had visited the Saket Block residence of the three sisters, nor any of their was found to be functional in the area, it can safely be stated that the Anganwadi system had failed at least two of the three children.

PDS: a System Left Undistributed in Mandavali?

The Abhiyan mentions that the family of the three sisters didn’t have a ration card. This means they had no access to the Public Distribution System, which offers food grains and non-food products at subsidised prices to the poor.

The Quint’s independent investigation found that only one family from the building in which the girls were found dead, had access to ration cards. Most men in these families worked as vegetable vendors and earned barely enough to sustain their families.

Savatri’s family has no access to the PDS. (Photo: The Quint)

Savitri’s family of four has been living in Pandit Chowk for two years. But they don’t have ration cards and are subsequently not able to access subsidised ration, even after making multiple applications to authorities. “But that doesn’t mean we or our children are starving,” she warns.

However, how families sustain themselves without access to PDS remains a pressing question.

When the Checker Goes Unchecked

Government policies, however elaborate, are not full-proof. Most of them lag behind in terms of last-mile connectivity and therefore must include continuous monitoring and periodic social audits within in its own design. This means that the pill to rid a policy of ailments must be provided for in its very structure.

In this case, the Delhi Government, the Abhiyan asserts, had failed to put into place proper mechanisms that could redress grievances related to PDS and delivery of other essential services.

Lack of accountability systems means peoples complaints of denial of food security, like not having a ration card, non-functional anganwadis etc remain unaddressed. Had the system of social audits been active, it would have thrown up these anomalies of non-functional anganwadis and needy families being left out of the purview of the NFSA.   

Delhi Rozi Roti Adhikar Abhiyan Report

The death of three sisters of one family, all in one day, is a classic textbook case of how any family facing a financial drain, can suffer in the absence of government monitoring.

The fact that Mangal Singh once ran a decent stall and even distributed sweets on the birthdays of his daughters tells us that bad times don’t come invited.