RTI reveals over 600 child deaths in four months at Kalawati Hospital
9 May, 2013The reply to an application filed under the Right to Information (RTI) Act has revealed extremely high child death rate at a single government hospital in Delhi raising questions over poor health care facilities at state-run hospitals. The RTI reply states that a total of 619 children lost their lives in Kalawati Saran Children’s Hospital at Connaught Place in New Delhi over a mere four month period.
The data provided in the reply shows that around 150 children died each month i.e. 5 child deaths each day on an average. The data states that 246 children died at the hospital in October 2012, 152 in November 2012, 121 in December 2012 and 100 children died in January this year.
The high number of deaths is despite the fact that the state government has allocated huge resources for health sector. There was an increase of 33% in the budget allocation for health sector increasing the total outlay from Rs. 1,872 crores to Rs. 2,419 crores.