In Poshan, hope rises for babies and mothers— malnourished, low on basic minerals like iron
LAXMI had seen childbirths in her village, assisted midwives, and helped expecting mothers. But she was unable to understand the possible reasons for her own ordeal—excessively swollen feet and hands, protruding eyeballs and loss of appetite. She suffered it all. Eight months pregnant, this woman in her midtwenties used to live alone during the day as her husband worked in the field. “I thought we were being punished for our bad deeds; nobody faces such troubles during pregnancy,” she says. She had developed an unusual habit: “I started liking the taste of red bricks and sand; didn’t know what was happening to me.”
It was only in her third trimester, after attending community dialogue sessions by Prerak Vandana Pandey of Poshan (the PM’s Overarching Scheme for Holistic Nourishment), she understood what was ailing her. “She was ignorant of her diet through a major part of the gestation and became deficient in important nutrients,” Pandey recalls. She suffered from severe oedema that caused a bloated body. Her unawareness led to a complicated delivery and poor health of both mother and child. Her child was delivered safely, though, and is in good health.
Another woman, Pushpa, from the same village gave birth to a stillborn last year. This happened despite a “normal” pregnancy and diligent adherence to mother-in-law’s home remedies. She is scared to conceive again.
Esta historia es de la edición July 22, 2019 de Outlook.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 8500 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor ? Conectar
Esta historia es de la edición July 22, 2019 de Outlook.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 8500 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor? Conectar
Raw and Real
Music by Kashmiri artists captures people’s lived experiences and daily realities
Beneath the Anger
The savvy and silent electric buses of Nouveau Kashmir
When Two Men Came Knocking
The memory of the two army personnel knocking on my door on a Saturday afternoon in 2009 and what happened after that is still too fresh
Old Sorrows, Old Terrors
Perhaps someday the clouds will lift, the moon poured from the flagon, ripened by the sun clenched firmly in the wine bearer's hand
The Weight of Words
A single word or an inadvertant disclosure can have serious consequences in Kashmir
An Illusory Peace
Even a thousand tongues cannot unravel the quiet that has become a part of life in the Valley
Manufactured Silences
The stance of the Union government towards J&K is becoming progressively more regressive and despotic
Emotional Cost of 'Peace'
Senior PDP leader Waheed-ur-Rehman Parra, who contested from Srinagar, says the prevailing silence in Kashmir is New Delhi’s definition of peace. In reality, this silence is stifling Kashmiris
Surveillance and Survival
The enforced silence in Kashmir echoes themes from George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984
Talking of Russia-Ukraine
Divert the conversation to faraway places, quote Urdu poetry—tactics to avoid talking about issues confronting Kashmir