She is Shobha Kumari D/O Ramchansra Mistri (Raj Mistri, unskilled labour) and Fulmanti devi (Home maker and agriculture labour) Village Baradih, Manpur Gaya. When our activist Meena devi was weighing children she looks at this child when shobha was 16 months old and in grade- IV (22nd Sept 2006) and near  death. She was suffering from so many diseases and there was no hope. It is surprising that her home is just behind ICDS worker’s home and the governments Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) center was supposed to be running daily.

Our activist meena told the story to Rekha Sharma (Cluster inchage). Then Rekha sharma & Meena both went to their house. They are confused about what they would need to do. They asked Binod ( Dist. Secretary, BGVS) and he asked us at the state level. We suggest them to first cosult with govt hospital. Doctor gave some medicines for the disease but not given any suggestions for permanent solution. After consulting the doctor he told us that there is no hope.

Due to our follow-up efforts she took de-worming medicines and then vitamin A solution and iron tablets. E We suggested to feed the child more and more. After 15 days binod told me on phone that she is somewhat better. Meanwhile our data was consolidated at block level and got published in some news papers. They also published Shobha's story.

Then Civil Surgeon visited this girl with his team. He gave warning to ICDS worker and Local Doctor. He also asked them to support this girl, but did not give anything. ICDS and doctor reacted to our team. In ICDS language “paper me chhapawe se ka holwa? Ulte sab ko jan gelwa. Seti hawa , bad me tora dikkate hatwa. Bgvs wala kuchh delkawa tora” she told her mother and fukwanti devi felt confused. Our team visited this girl regularly and monitored her diet. This time she is not fully out of malnutirtion but she is doing far better. Our team is weighing all children on the interval of 2 months.

Status of this child:

22.09.06 16 months Malnutrition Grade-IV

1.12.06   18 months      G-III

2.02.07   20  months     G-III

14.04.07  22 months     G-III

Now the government's Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) worker and local doctors are convinced with our malnutrition and child health data and we have a smooth relation. One time a doctor challenged our data and he told there are not so many children unimmunized. Binod invited him to visit a village Bahora where no one is immunized. Then doctor asked the ANM - auxilliary Nurse and mid-wife -- her opinion. First  she denied then accepted that this village is a remote dalit village. Then a team visited this village. So many similar stories are there in every village in all blocks. Stories like this one of little Shoba Kumari of village Baradih in Gaya, Bihar.  

This time Panchayat Sevak come to us and is collecting data about how many children were born and how many of them died.

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This report is communicated to us by Shri Dharmendra Kumar who is state level coordinator for AID supported Hundred Block Program (HBP) along with Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samiti (BGVS).