The recent outbreak of a yet unknown disease, claiming lives of nine children in a remote Tripura village, brought to light the ethnic minority’s deprivation of basic civic amenities. Some 400 people of 64 families live in Tripura Para in Sonaichhari area under Sitakunda upazila of Chittagong which is about 4km off Dhaka-Chittagong highway. Chittagong Civil Surgeon Dr Azizur Rahman Siddiqui admitted that government healthcare programmes like immunisation and nutrition did not cover Tripura Para. The health workers did not inform us that the villagers were not included in the healthcare programmes over the years,” he claimed. Narrating the long deprivation, Shashi Kumar, a resident of Tripura Para, said: “We often have to go through acute food crisis as we entirely depend on Jhum cultivation.

Source: Dhaka Tribune July 15, 2017 07:55 UTC