Excerpted with permission from The First Responders, by the Reliance Foundation and the Observer Research Foundation, this article shares the story of Kiran Devi. Born in a Dalit family in Baigai, Nalanda district, Bihar, Devi was compelled to leave school at an early age and married off. This excerpt focuses on the incredible work done by Devi, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.
While raising her children and working as a daily wage labourer, Kiran Devi began to observe fundamental challenges in her community related to the lack of access to healthcare, especially for women. She helped expectant mothers access maternal health clinics located at a distance from the village. Realising the importance of local health centres that could provide care for the people in her village, she began advocating for the availability of essentials such as medicines and equipment while spreading awareness about the importance of accessing healthcare. She communicated frequently with other members of the community.
When she campaigned, she focused on what she thought were the most essential development issues in her ward that needed urgent attention: access to clean water, the need for roads to link the village with surrounding areas, proper drainage facilities, better hygiene and sanitation, and learning facilities. The community was ready to listen when she visited their homes. Her husband moved back to the village to support her endeavour. After she won, she immediately set to work on the first point on her agenda: the provision of clean water.
Kiran Devi was soon approached by the NGO, Centre for Catalysing Change (which mentors Panchayat-level women leaders) who encouraged her to participate in a training programme. She received training to work on various social issues like improved health and nutrition facilities. In particular, she learned how to obtain information on services available for pregnant women, such as antenatal care, the uses and availability of iron folic acid tablets, and ambulance services.
It is the same training that equipped Kiran Devi with the skills that were required to handle the Covid-19 pandemic. The initial outbreak made the people afraid. She helped facilitate the distribution of masks, soaps and sanitisers in her ward, and went door-to-door to raise awareness about pandemic-appropriate behaviour.
Now in 2022, and nearly two years into the pandemic, the difficulties continue to be felt, and Kiran Devi's resolve to help her community has not waned. These days, the challenge in the village is to make people understand the importance of getting inoculated. She was the first in her village to get vaccinated, and hoped that her example would allay the fears of the others. “I told them, 'If the vaccine has a harmful effect on me, then you should not take it.'” It worked, and the target residents in her ward have received both doses of the vaccine. Overall, the state 54 of Bihar crossed the 80 million mark in vaccinations in late November 2021, ranking among the top five states in the country in the number of vaccine doses administered.
Kiran Devi has accomplished many other things. She ensured the construction of a water tank to service the entire village, worked to improve the drainage facilities, and oversaw the construction of toilets. She has also facilitated the improvement of service delivery through the Anganwadi Centres (AWCs), in addition to the distribution of food rations and the provision of elementary education to all children. There is no doubt that her efforts in her own ward, have helped score progress for the entire Nalanda district. According to 55 district-level data, the percentage of mothers who had received an antenatal check-up in the first trimester increased from 40.2 percent to 64.7 percent between 2015-16 and 2019-20. Similarly, the percentage of pregnant women who consumed iron-folic acid for 100 days or more rose from 7.1 percent to 16.4 percent in the 56 same period.
Kiran Devi's work as a ward member was also key to the reopening of the local Additional Primary Health Centre (APHC), which had for long been non-functional. In the absence of the facility, villagers, and especially pregnant women have had to travel long distances, often crossing a few villages to access maternal and child healthcare. She was determined to ensure that the APHC become functional again. She reached out to the Medical Officer-in-Charge and followed up on the task by seeking out a meeting with Hari Narayan Singh, member of the Legislative Assembly at the Harnaut block. She discussed with him the urgency of having the APHC running again. In March 2019 the APHC was finally reopened, but Kiran Devi's work did not end there. She made arrangements for the availability of basic healthcare equipment at the centre and ensured that the broken windowpanes in the examination area were replaced, and the toilet was renovated, too. “If the village is healthy then I am healthy.”
When the Covid-19 vaccination rollout began across the country in early 2021, the APHC had to be closed again. This was because staff from the APHC such as the Auxiliary Nurse Midwives who were posted at the APHC were called for vaccination and other Covid-19-related duties. Kiran Devi is intent on reviving the APHCs, and she has submitted a written application via the grievance redressal system of the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare and plans to follow through with the local MLA and Civil Surgeon. If one listens to Kiran Devi describe her tasks as ward member, it seems there is no end. And she does not complain; she conducts her tasks seriously, deriving inspiration from the support of her community members. She made promises to her fellow villagers when she campaigned those years ago; she has delivered on many of them, she believes, and she would like to do more for the development of the Powari Panchayat. While her own grit, determination and perseverance have been fundamental, the learnings that she has derived from her experiences have also been essential to the role she has played.
Through all these years, Kiran Devi's experiences as an elected representative have made her realise the importance of enabling women to find their voice and use it. When asked about her hopes for her own children, she says she would like for them to have a good life. Her face lights up when talking of her daughter, in particular. She is very much aware of the many obstacles that her own daughter will face. She wants her, unequivocally, to complete her education and build a life for herself. Then she can pay it forward and help the community, too.
(Written by Pratnashree Basu. For more on Devi and the other women heroes from around the country, read: Jayashree B, Sunaina Kumar, Anirban Sarma, Vanita Sharma, and Shoba Suri, Eds., The First Responders: Women Who Led India Through the Pandemic.)