Bhopal:
Savitri sits in her hut with her two young sons. Till recently, she had another child. The two-year-old died last month. In local parlance, he died of "sukhni"-which literally means a child shrivelling from hunger.
In this part of north Madhya Pradesh, so many children die of hunger that the region has actually coined its own term to describe the horror.
In the last three months, 65 children between the age of one to six have starved to death.
Last year, 195 children were killed.
The government rushed money to local aanganwadis, where rural children are meant to get free healthcare and two meals a day.
In Savitri's village, the aanganwadi exists only in records.
''This aanganwadi never opened before, nor will it open now,'' says Gopi, a resident.
270 kilometres away, another aaganwadi in Chattarpur mocks the government's mission statement. No breakfast has been served here in years. For lunch, children are served porridge every day-a violation of the rules, which prescribe a variety of meals.
''Children refuse to eat porridge every day and waste it,'' says Archana Mishra, a worker at the aanganwadi.
The sorry state of affairs is the result of widespread corruption which has denied the children of their share of right nutrition.
In neighbouring Tikamgarh, six children registered with another aanganwadi prove how desperately flawed the system is. They've been hospitalised with severe malnutrition.
''Two of my daughters were hospitalised. One survived, the other died,'' says Chotelal Kirhare, a tribal Villager in Tikamgarh district.
In every village here, the story repeats itself in the harshest terms. The battle against malnutrition remains the weakest.