Work you do does make a difference in life; and
when it does to other’s life, its worth doing! Sometimes you like your work,
but even better is when the work starts liking you. I am proud of myself today;
but it has not been like this forever.
It seemed that my nose-ring (like a noose)
kept me bound to the house, even after my husband left to work abroad. With two
small kids dependent on me, it was criminal for me to sit quietly at home. I
would spend most of my time in useless household work, which would still leave
me with a feeling so empty and useless. I wanted to do something for my
children, myself and my village.
It was then that I heard about the vacancy for
the post of ASHAs in the block, and got selected and tagged as “Mridula
Kumari” ASHA-Parsa (where I had come as a young bride sometime back).
Even after the selection it took me a long time to start my work; for once
there was nothing like any training organized for us. We were left to work and
learn on our own. During our monthly ASHA meets it was more or less like a
political party meeting, where everyone would be there but none would or rather
could hear or understand anything, leave alone clear our doubts! There were
many more like me in the group who wanted to do something concrete but felt helpless
due to lack of knowledge or anyone to help us.
It was 1st Wednesday of the month
that we were called for a meeting at Health Sub-Centre. It was informed by ANM didi
(The only one we could turn towards help, but we saw her only once a month)
that it would start at about 1 pm but since it was ‘too’ far from my home; I
was double-minded and reached late at the venue. There I saw a team of young
people who were trying to ‘enact’ how we ‘interact’ with pregnant women
and mothers during our meetings with them. I got hooked! The team was from CARE
and they were actually going to train us on how to ‘talk to beneficiaries’
coming right to the village.
It has been 4 months now after that first
meeting and I have grown into a confident woman from that demure bride who
could never even think about talking to her village people about ‘Family
Planning’. Initially I had a lot of problems too. My work area included two
extremes; one Musahar community (low castes) and Bhumihaar (upper
caste) which made it very peculiar for me to work there. Although I didn’t
believe much in caste system, the acceptance among the people there for me was very
low. I decided to take up the challenge and started identifying the children
who needed me the most.
As per growth monitoring charts, we decided to
adopt few houses for ongoing counseling sessions. My visits to Musahar
community were more than others since I realized that they needed my counseling
more. This is where I met Laxmi and her 9 month old Rajesh. Rajesh when weighed
came in ‘red line’. It was explained by the AWW that if he was not taken
care of, he would be dangerously malnourished. This child as complained by his
mother would not take anything other than her own milk. After getting the same
reply from her in two visits; I asked her to bring whatever food was available
at home. Reluctantly she brought out some cooked rice. I asked her to mix a
little salt in it and started feeding the child. Lo and behold, the child
started eating. Laxmi was ashamed of her laziness to feed her own child. Today
the child is eating all kinds of vegetables, pulses and cereals and recovering
well (as per last month’s weighing, he has come into yellow line category)
and Laxmi is thankful to me.
Ravish, 4 month old was a feeble child who
would never stop crying. The child caught my attention when his mother Archana
had refused to get him immunized through ANM in-spite of repeated efforts. They
were far too rich for that! I gathered all my courage to go to their house
which was famous for its harsh language. After the initial hesitation, I was at
ease with myself and started enquiring about breastfeeding practices from the
mother. It was surprisingly scary that the child had been fed on bottle milk
from 1st month itself. “We can afford bottle milk, that’s why we
are feeding it!” is what I heard from the Mother-in-law. No wonder the
child fell ill every 15 days and would never stop crying. Through the picture
pamphlets I explained to the mother some ‘easy way’ of breastfeeding the
child (I sensed the unwillingness to breastfeed was a reason here). Few
signs of proper latching and suckling during breastfeeding were also taught to
Archana. The whole concept of breastfeeding was changed from ‘free diet’
to ‘healthy diet’ for the richer class. This simple change in
conversation style brought about a behaviour change and helped a mother to
breastfeed her child again.
Today I feel the caste doesn’t define anyone’s
development, only knowledge does! The continuous weekly follow up by CARE team
has made us so efficient that we speak about anything related to mother and
child confidently. Our visits to the field have made us gain respect in the
communities. On one of the field visits when I heard “Apni ke hamni ke
zindagi ke asal main Asha ho gayal baani” (you have actually become ASHA of our
lives) from one of the villagers, my heart swelled with pride. I realize
that there is still a very long way to go, but here I have made a start! This
start can go a long way with http://www.isb.edu/idiya/,
can it not?
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