Sunita SomvanshiA tap turns on in a tribal village in Balaghat, Madhya Pradesh. Brown, murky water flows out. A camera captures it. Someone asks: would the ministers and MLAs make their own children drink this?
That question, posed during a ground visit to the district in September 2026, has been hanging in the air for weeks now — with no answer from the state government.
Abhijeet Dipke, founder of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), traveled to Balaghat’s tribal belt after reports emerged that more than 30 children had died in villages across the district over the preceding months. Dipke and a team of local youth visited the villages of Adori, Korka, and Bondari, meeting families who had lost children and documenting conditions on the ground.
“We have come only to fix responsibility and accountability,” Dipke told reporters during the visit.
The children who died mostly belong to the Baiga community — a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG) under Indian law, which carries the highest tier of constitutional protections and welfare entitlements. The government’s own assessment identified measles, malaria, malnutrition, dehydration, and anaemia as contributing factors. The district administration has officially confirmed 8 deaths. Tribal representatives put the figure at 24. Dipke and the CJP have stated the number exceeds 30.
In the villages, there are no functioning hand pumps for many residents. No piped water supply. What some families use is a jhiria — a shallow pit dug in a dry riverbed where water seeps slowly through sand. It has been used for generations. It offers no protection against contamination from agricultural runoff or seasonal pathogens.
“In our house, there are the most problems of the water,” one resident told Dipke’s team during their visit. “There is no hand pump, no water, nothing. In the area of the river, we will have to use the water.”
India’s Jal Jeevan Mission, launched in 2019, committed to providing tap water connections to every rural household by 2024. In these villages, that commitment has not translated into working infrastructure.
At a local residential school serving 43 adivasi children, the team’s documentation raised further questions. The cooking area had a damaged gas cylinder that had been leaking for an extended period. The onions stored for the mid-day meal had rotted. The toilet block — built specifically for the tribal students — had been locked and unusable for three years, forcing children to go outside to open fields. A water pipe had been installed but carried no water.
“If children eat food like this, why would they not fall sick? Why would they not die?” Dipke said on camera while inspecting the kitchen stores.
These are adivasi children placed in a residential school because their own villages lack schools. The residential model is meant to provide safety, food, and education. Here, the door to the hostel did not open properly. The children go outside. They have been going outside for three years.
Dipke and his team also flagged a systemic gap in healthcare delivery: ASHA workers — the frontline community health volunteers who are supposed to track child nutrition and illness at the household level — had not received their honorariums for months.
A government survey from July 2026 found that, among 1,149 children below six years weighed across 28 Anganwadi centres in the affected area, 213 were moderately underweight and 18 were severely underweight. A Balaghat hospital treated approximately 400 children at a facility designed for 50 beds, according to details cited in court proceedings.
The Madhya Pradesh High Court’s Jabalpur bench has issued notices to the state government, the state Health Department, the Women and Child Development Department, and the Balaghat Collector while hearing a Public Interest Litigation. The PIL alleged overcrowded hospitals, contaminated drinking water, and irregular nutrition distribution.
“We completely sympathise with families who have lost their children and will definitely come forward to ensure justice for them,” Dipke said.
The visit attracted opposition from local groups. While Dipke and his team were filming in the affected villages, they were confronted by people who accused him of politicising the deaths. In response, Dipke published a satirical resignation letter styled as if addressed to the Madhya Pradesh state government, stating he was “resigning as Chief Minister of MP.” The PTI news agency reported the post on September 13, 2026. It was widely carried in national media.
As of the time of writing, no official in the state government or district administration has been held accountable. The court notices remain pending response. The hand pumps in several villages still produce yellow water. The locked toilet at the tribal school has been documented on video. The ASHA workers’ arrears have not been publicly confirmed as paid.
The Madhya Pradesh High Court has issued notices to the state and district authorities over the child deaths in Balaghat. A July 2026 government survey confirmed widespread malnutrition among tribal children in the affected area. Abhijeet Dipke and a team visited Adori, Korka, and Bondari villages in September 2026, documenting contaminated water, a locked school toilet unused for three years, rotten mid-day meal supplies, and unpaid frontline health workers. The district administration officially confirmed 8 deaths while tribal representatives and the CJP have cited higher figures.
