Kurkura, 60km off capital Ranchi, has the right to vote, but its 1,500-odd residents continue to miss their right to good health.
A nondescript cluster of 250 households under Mandar block's Mandro panchayat, which votes on December 5, a disease akin to diarrhoea is furiously stalking Kurkura. At least 20 people have been fighting bouts of fever, loose motion and nausea since Friday night, but it took the death of a schoolgirl Saturday noon to jolt the administration out of its slumber.
The health department, however, is yet to probe the outbreak or mobilise the Mandro health sub-centre into prevention mode.
When The Telegraph team reached Kurkura on Sunday morning, it spotted ANM (auxiliary nurse midwife) Cilli Lakra on health observation beat, enquiring whether Saturday's intravenous rehydration therapy had worked.
Cilli and her team were rushed to the village from Mandar primary health centre (PHC) after 12-year-old Jaitun Khatoon, a seventh grader at the local Mandro school, died on her way to the PHC.
Jaitun, whose kutcha house in Kurkura doesn't have a toilet, had had to run to a field to defecate or vomit umpteen times before she succumbed to the disease for want of treatment. No wonder her family members in particular and Kurkura in general are angry.
Mother Takiman Khatoon couldn't stop badmouthing Cilli and Shabnam Kujur, the village sahiya (health worker). They were too traumatised to speak to this correspondent.
Neighbour Siddheswar Sahi filled the gap. "The ANMs and sahiyas only come here when a baby is born. The rest of the time they leave us at the mercy of quacks. Doctors are never present at the PHC," the 45-year-old complained.
Septuagenarian Bhola Mahto claimed Cilli and company were in Kurkura on Sunday because of the media. "She lives in Makmandro, 45km from here, and comes once or twice a week. She came to know you will be here today," the village veteran told this correspondent.
Mandar block, where five women were lynched in a witch-hunt at Kanjiya village, needs better healthcare for more reasons than just one.
BDO Gopi Oraon agreed. He dialled Dr Ashwini Kumar of Mandar PHC for a status report on Kurkura, but the latter said he was in Ranchi.
"Imagine the state of affairs. When I can work on a Sunday, why can't the doctor? I had asked him to personally go and examine the villagers who were administered medicines. We cannot afford to lose lives. Above all, I must know why so many people are ill," Oraon said.
It was heard on the grapevine that bingeing on junk food during the Thursday haat might have triggered the outbreak, but villagers refused to admit so.
" Sabhi koi haat mein samosa, kachori, jalebi, chana, chow mein... khate hai; tab to bimari sabko lagna chahiye (Everybody eats at the village haat; in that case, everybody should fall sick)," argued Sanjay Kumar, whose 12-year-old daughter Riya is also unwell.
Lalita Kumari, a friend of Riya, is wiser perhaps. " Hum se aur chala nahi jata. Cilli didi boli theek ho jayega, par aspatal le jaate to theek rehta (I am too ill to walk. Cilli said I would feel better, but she should have taken us to hospital)," the 12-year-old said.
Cilli defended her stand. "They are better now. They don't need to be admitted to the health centre," she said.
Asked whether he had sought a probe and tagged a name to the disease, Ranchi civil surgeon Dr Gopal Srivastava crisply said, "I will ask (about the outbreak)."
Mandro in Mandar block votes on December 5
