Bombay HC Continues Monitoring Melghat Crisis As Malnutrition, Water Scarcity Persist After 3 Decades

Mumbai, July 20, 2026: On one hand, while several parts of Maharashtra are facing floods following incessant rains, there are other regions grappling with malnutrition, poor healthcare and water scarcity.

More than three decades after the Bombay High Court began monitoring the plight of tribals in Melghat, the region in Maharashtra's Amravati district continues to struggle with the same issues that first drew judicial attention.

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Court Flags Persistent Crisis

The situation is so dire that a bench of Justices Ajey Gadkari and Kamal Khata remarked last week that water is a basic necessity and not a luxury. The court chided the government pleader, who emphasised that the state has been providing water tankers every day.

A batch of public interest litigations filed in 1992–93 by activists, including Dr Rajendra Burma and Bandu Sampatrao Sane, highlighted chronic malnutrition, child deaths, poor health infrastructure and lack of safe drinking water in the tribal belt.

Since then, the high court has passed several directions, constituted monitoring committees and sought reports from senior bureaucrats, but has repeatedly noted that little has changed on the ground.

In March this year, a bench led by Justice Ravindra Ghuge (now the Acting Chief Justice of the HC) strongly criticised the Maharashtra government over continuing malnutrition-related deaths.

“It is a tragedy that this court has to hear submissions on deaths occurring due to malnutrition, lack of medication and proper medical support to children, pregnant women and lactating mothers,” the bench observed, adding that despite “heaps of papers and reports”, there was little visible improvement.

The court has also expressed concern over recurring shortages of safe drinking water. During an April hearing, it was informed that 13 people had died and 86 others had been hospitalised due to water contamination.

The court directed the state to ensure regular supply of potable water through tankers. However, during the latest hearing, advocate Jugalkishor Gilda, appearing for one of the petitioners, said tanker supply remained highly irregular and the water supplied was not of good quality.

Healthcare Gaps Persist

Healthcare infrastructure continues to remain one of the region’s biggest challenges. A proposed 300-bed hospital at Dharni, promised years ago, is yet to be built, while several primary health centres remain understaffed or non-functional.

“When I started practice as a lawyer, the state had promised a hospital in Dharni. My tenure as a judge is to come to an end. But the hospital has not come up,” Justice Ghuge remarked during a hearing in March.

The government has attributed the shortage of doctors to their unwillingness to serve in the remote region despite higher incentives. Gilda, however, argued that doctors avoid postings because basic facilities, including accommodation, are unavailable.

The shortage of specialists has also drawn judicial attention. In December last year, the high court directed the state to appoint a gynaecologist and paediatrician in every public health centre in Melghat, either on contract or through deputation.

Despite the order, the petitioners maintain that the situation remains grim.

Gilda pointed out that poor roads and lack of medical specialists continue to cost lives. He referred to the death of a pregnant woman who died while being shifted from a primary health centre in Melghat to a hospital in Amravati after specialist treatment was unavailable locally.

Advocate Uday Warunjikar, representing one of the petitioners, also pointed to the lack of paramedical staff, sonography machines and language barriers between tribal patients and healthcare workers.

Coordination Issues Continue

The issue of coordination among government departments has troubled the court for years. In a significant 2015 order, the bench noted that welfare schemes in Melghat and other sensitive tribal projects suffered because of poor coordination between departments.

The court had earlier constituted a core committee to improve coordination between departments after observing that welfare schemes were suffering due to poor implementation. Petitioners, however, say the committee does not meet regularly and that an audit ordered in 2018 found little improvement.

Livelihood has remained another recurring issue. The state has sought to address this through employment generation schemes. It recently informed the high court that over Rs 135 crore had been paid as wages in the two Melghat talukas during the past year.

The state has also stated that it has ensured uninterrupted electricity for water pumping.

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Bombay HC Seeks Verification Of Water Tanker Supply Claims In 22 Melghat Villages

Despite decades of monitoring, repeated directions and periodic reviews, the high court continues to hear the same issues that first brought Melghat into judicial focus more than 30 years ago — a stark reminder that policy announcements and budget allocations have yet to translate into lasting change for one of Maharashtra’s most vulnerable tribal regions.

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