Building a Wider
Horizon With Labour
As Soni Wadwi breastfed her one-year-old son, Sonu, outside her hut in Khoch village, Maharashtra, she recounted how he almost died from severe malnutrition four months ago. The family left the village in the Palghar district of Maharashtra state last year for work for several months as many do. When they returned, Sonu was weak and admitted to hospital. Wadwi's son survived and made a full recovery but about 400 other children died from malnutrition-linked illnesses in Palghar between April and November 2016, a rising trend that campaigners put down to an annual pattern of migration for work.
