Gramin Vikas Sansthan

Jagdei, from village Pure Malin, got married at the age of seven and came to live in her husband's home at fourteen. Her eldest daughter is 22 and her youngest is three years old. Beside these two, she has three other children. Three years ago, Jagdei gave birth to her daughter and a year later she had menopause.

Even the doctor made fun of her pregnancy at such a late stage in life, recounted Jagdei had aged prematurely.

Jagdei's life has not been easy. A life of extreme poverty and a husband, who did nothing much but sleep all the day and beat her from time to time. From nothing, Jagdei single handedly built up her house, which is partly of mud and partly of bricks and cement. And long before any VHW stepped into her village campaigning for maternal and child health, she figured out by herself what to eat and what not to, observing her cow. She thus gave birth to a series of strong and healthy children despite her abject condition. Jagdei is a true women of substance, unknown and unsung.

"I told myself if a cow could be so big and have so much milk eating just grass, there must be something in it. So I always brought back lots of green leaves from the farm - bathua, chickpea, mustard and radish leaves. I always had plenty of milk. A child would suckle from one breast and milk would flow from other," She says with pride and joy.

Jagdei is so poor she has not an inch of land. She does sharecropping on two bighas of land practically alone; her husband refuses to work. At the time of her last pregnancy, Jagdei was a SMCS program beneficiary. She loved going to the meeting and followed and all instructions dutifully. She said she ate frequently as the VHW told her to. "I did not have any fancy food like fruits, etc. I had only chapatis and a chutney made of coriander leaves, but I had that frequently."