To most children, festival holidays bring joy and a break from studies. For Santoshi Kumari, it meant starving. The 11-year-old died on September 28 at her village in Jharkhand, months after the administration allegedly stopped giving her family subsidized food. A report by district officials says the cause of death is malaria, but her family claims she died crying, "bhaat, bhaat (rice)."
Chief Minister Raghubar Das has ordered an investigation and demanded a report within 24 hours on whether Santoshi's family was denied food for months and their ration card cancelled because it had not been linked to their Aadhaar unique ID number. "Such an unfortunate incident should not be repeated in my Jharkhand, every officer must make sure," he said amid spiraling outrage over the tragedy.
Of some 700 homes in and around the village Karimati, 10 families - including that of Santoshi - were stripped of their ration card by a local officer.
Activists stress that cancelling a family's ration benefits is a violation of several Supreme Court orders since 2013, which say that an Aadhaar number cannot be made compulsory for food benefits to poor families.
Watch NDTV's show India Matters, aired earlier this year, that highlighted a serious problem in the country's public distribution system.
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