‘Food supplied to disabled not nutritious enough’

Chennai

In response to the counter filed by the government, the petitioner, L Muruganantham, cited research articles that claimed that impairment in nutritional status, consequent to quantitative and qualitative inadequacy of the diet, could be one of the first steps in the development of co-morbidities in disabled people. In the ration supplied, which included 15kg rice, 1kg toor dhal, I kg oil, I kg sugar, the deficiency of proteins was more than 85 per cent while deficiency of vitamins and minerals was around 90 per cent, he contended.

Among 21 types of disabilities, 12 were related to medical/health disability and some of those conditions were progressively worsening as they are not provided nutritious diet and medical/health care services, the petitioner said, adding that even this ration was being provided to only those with ration cards while there were many disabled persons languishing without it.

Also, the total number of persons with disability in Tamil Nadu as per the 2011 census was 11.79 lakh while the government has stated that two months’ maintenance allowance grant has been credited for 1.94 lakh disabled people, which meant that nearly 9.5 lakh physically challenged people have been ignored, the rejoinder said.

It also raised other issues like lack physiotherapy care and dedicated helplines for the physically disabled.

The plea that came up before a division bench comprising Justice R Subbiah and Justice Krishnan Ramasamy has been posted for further hearing after four weeks.