his hoMe had
No ToileTs
Dilip Kumar, 3
Village Khor Patti
Muzaffarpur districtSUDDEN ONSET: Dilip had com-
plained of stomach pain for three
days. His father, Dinesh Ram, a
daily-wage labourer, took him to
the local doctor. The prescribed
tonic did not help. He suddenly
developed high temperature
around 4 am. When Dinesh
reached SKMCH, 20 km away,
the doctors tried to treat Dilip,
but he soon died.THE MYSTERY: The mud and
thatched tenement where Dilip
lived shows signs of poor domes-
tic hygiene. And like almost the
entire village, the family defe-
cates in the open for lack
of toilets.CALL FOR INVESTIGATION:
Open defecation raises chances
of groundwater contamination
with enteroviruses, notorious for
causing fatal encephalitis in mal-
nourished children. A recent
study by Girish Kumar Singh,
director of AIIMS, Patna, uses
virus-tracking software to show
how excrement flows into the
Saryu river in Muzaffarpur, Bihar,
and down the Gandak river in
Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, caus-
ing AES in those areas. In
Muzaffarpur, people commonly
use human faeces as a fertiliser
in litchi orchards.cover sTory
38 OutlOOk 8 July 2019
PraBhaT raNjaN kumariN MOurNiNG dilip’s parents
outside their house in Khor Patti