As authorities in the flooded northeast Indian state of Assam battle to deliver relief supplies to stranded families, desperate mothers are struggling to feed their children.Flood victims say the only relief supplies they have received so far are bags of rice and salt.
"Our children are starving but then what to do? We are feeding them just boiled rice and salt, at times forcefully," said Nal Banu, a mother of two teenage children.
For mothers of small children, meal times are even more difficult.
"We want baby food packets," said an angry Khalida Begum to a team of health workers who visited the area at the weekend.
Like Banu and Begum, hundreds of mothers in Juria village, 150 kilometers (93 miles) from Assam's main city of Guwahati, complained that the authorities and aid agencies were oblivious to the food needs of children during the floods.
Even water purifying tablets were not available, they said.
"When in distress, we are forced to give dirty floodwater to our children. We heard that something called halogen tablets (water purifying tablets) have reached the state from some aid agencies, but then where are they?" asked Sreemanta Das, another villager.
More than 12 million people in the northeast have been displaced and some 130 people killed in floods and landslides triggered by heavy monsoon rains since mid-June.
Flood waters have begun receding since Saturday but state authorities fear outbreaks of waterborne diseases as displaced families battle to cope with the lack of fresh food and water.
Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said efforts were being made to send baby food and other essentials, including halogen tablets and medical assistance, to flood-hit areas.
"Efforts are going on at a war-footing. But then in this kind of a devastating flood, we understand we cannot satisfy each and every affected family or village," the chief minister said.
Meanwhile, the overall flood situation in the northeast has improved with the floodwaters receding considerably, Gogoi said.
"The level of the Brahmaputra river is falling across the state, although many areas are still submerged and road links snapped in several parts," he added.
An Assam government statement Sunday said the floods have affected all 27 districts in the state having washed away about 400,000 houses in about 11,000 villages.
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