Pipaliya women duo strike hard at infant mortality, malnutrition in Sabarkantha

In the run-up to International Women Day, We Are Featuring UNSUNG WOMEN HEROES who are fighting against malnutrition in the state of Gujarat. This is last story of our series.

By Kumar Manish

With a significant increase in awareness on infant mortality and malnutrition, the health card of Pipaliya village in Sabarkantha district of Gujarat is getting pink by the day. And the credit of heralding the bright future of this village goes to two persistent women duo: Parvati Parmar, a committed health worker, and Hansaben, a dedicated Aanganwadi worker. It may be noted that Sabarkantha is one of the tribal districts in Gujarat with highest cases of malnourished children.
They are champion of nutrition.

Located on a rocky terrain, Pipaliya’s population is scattered unevenly in the hilly region, posing a geographical challenge of reaching out to the last mile beneficiary. Till some years ago, of the two Aanganwadi Centres (AWC) in the region, one had no infrastructure and other had very poor turnout.

But the power-packed duo has been leading the awareness’ drive on nutrition and care with determination to change the health scenario of the village for better.
Parvati Parmar, with over 30 years of experience in the field, was entrusted with the new responsibility as a female health worker to expand the reach of Aanganwadi Centre and bring mothers and infants to the centre to provide benefits to fight malnutrition.

“I started visiting the village every day, followed by a routine of a counselling session. I would visit each household and convince them to avail the benefits of Aanganwadi and Village Health and Nutrition Day (VHND) services for the good health of mothers and kids,” Parvati says.

VHND in AWCs is dedicated to providing momentum to efforts aimed at increasing early registration, ANC checkups, counselling on institutional deliveries, counselling on breastfeeding, family planning, immunization, menstrual hygiene, etc. that lead to better maternal and child health.

On challenges, Parvati says, “During house visits, I realized that asking people to come all the way to far-flung Aanganwadi centre was not reasonable. The Aanganwadi centre in their neighbourhood was in a dilapidated state. Therefore, I approached the village Sarpanch and sought funds to repair Aanganwadi, which was in their close proximity. I got the support and the Aaganwadi got the facelift with adequate infrastructure in place in 2012-13.”

Parvati focused on the village and started conducting four VHND sessions at both AWCs to maximize the reach of healthcare for expecting mothers and mother with newborns. “We are happy that our efforts have paid off. Today reach of Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) and health schemes has increased from 30% to almost 90%. Health coverage has been taken up as a challenge but nutrition is an often-overlooked front. I feel that awareness related to nutrition should be spread on mission mode.”

Parvati found a natural ally in Hansaben, an Aanganwadi Worker, in Pipaliya village.

When Hansaben joined as an Aanganwadi worker in 2008, the edifice of the Aanganwadi Centre (AWC) was falling apart. The attendance was almost zero with people living at considerable distances from the AWC. With efforts from the serving Female Health Worker, the AWC got a new building in 2012. Hansaben hoped that the facelift would increase footfall for VHND sessions but the hopes were dashed off soon.

“I eventually realized that the indifference was due to lack of basic awareness and prevailing superstitions. I opted for regular house visits and also started counselling women in their farmlands, places of worship or wherever I could meet them. I used videos, flipcharts and other tools to deliver critical messages and information. In due course, women and children started coming to the AWC and started attending VHND sessions regularly,” says elated Hansaben.

Today, there are 106 ANC mothers and children (below the age of 6) in Pipaliya. All of them flock to Hansaben’s AWC religiously. “There are 88 children aged between 3-5 years in the hamlet. But 40 of them are still left out. I am trying my best to bring them into the fold. It is continuous process of reaching out and interacting with them on a regular basis,”

“It’s easier to convince women these days, as they are more open to change. Maybe, it is because of increased exposure to education and various mediums of information,” remarks Hansaben.

#EveryChildAlive #ChampionofNutrition #Gujarat

About the author: Kumar Manish is an independent journalist & chief communicator at Communicate Karo, working on communications for Not for Profits. He is passionate about sustainable & happy cities and children rights. He is an avid social media contributor and believes in social media for social good. He tweets from @kumarmanish9