Dipke Meets Baiga Families in Balaghat as Tribal Child Deaths Spark Row
Abhijeet Dipke visited Balaghat's tribal villages after over 30 Baiga children died; he disputed the official toll while the Collector cited multiple diseases.
Cockroach Janta Party founder Abhijeet Dipke visited tribal villages in Madhya Pradesh's Balaghat district on Saturday to meet families who lost children to monsoon-related illnesses, turning fresh attention on a crisis that has claimed more than 30 young lives in the region.
Speaking to reporters before the visits, Mr. Dipke said his aim was to establish accountability. He expressed sympathy with the bereaved families and said he would work to ensure they get justice, adding that he had come only to fix responsibility.
In a post on X, he said he remained in Balaghat meeting the families of children who had died, and that what locals told him was deeply disturbing. He claimed the actual number of deaths was far higher than the officially reported figure of 36, and that 86 children had been hospitalised recently after a protest by tribal residents.
Mr. Dipke further alleged that children were being cremated without post-mortems and, in some cases, in the absence of their parents, and named the Sub Divisional Magistrate as responsible. He said the children could have been saved with timely treatment.
He also criticised the BJP government and accused the Madhya Pradesh police of detaining tribal students who were coordinating his visit, asking why a BJP-ruled State appeared afraid of the truth emerging. The Congress has separately attacked the government over the delay in responding to the crisis and its failure to provide treatment.
Over the past two and a half months, more than 30 children have died across several villages of Birsa block, with infectious diseases such as measles, malaria, respiratory illness, malnutrition, anaemia and dehydration cited among the causes.
Balaghat Collector Kumar Satyam said Chief Minister Mohan Yadav had sanctioned financial assistance for the affected families, but maintained the deaths could not be attributed to any single disease. He said more than 450 children had received treatment at government hospitals in recent months and that health screenings had covered 40 villages in Birsa block.
The Collector noted that adults had also fallen ill from seasonal diseases, but children, with weaker immunity, had suffered the most. He said the administration's outreach had begun to win the trust of residents who had long been cut off from modern medical infrastructure and depended on faith healing, adding that the situation was improving and cases were declining. Persuading families to accept modern treatment was the hardest part, he said, but parents were responding better as children recovered and returned home.
The Madhya Pradesh High Court had earlier, on September 9, issued notices to authorities while hearing a plea seeking urgent intervention in the matter.