There is a village in tribal dominated district of Jhabua, where even today after sixty years of independence no senior administrative officer has ever visited. A local tribal resident Babu Makhana Medha tells us that in the sixty years of his life he has never seen any higher authority from the government reaching the village, just 2 Kilometer from one of the busiest Indore-Ahmadabad National Highway. If someone falls sick he is carried to the town in a bag made with cloth tied to bamboos. The ground realities are not very different from this in many of the villages in Madhya Pradesh, one of the biggest state of India.

The above story takes turn like an imagination, but a tribal village named Bhaisakarai is an astonishing reality. Surrounded by hills on all sides, a settlement in a valley and divided into four parts by the Harakia Khal River, there is no approach road but the Bhil villagers have defeated this challenge by ensuring 100% institutional births, 100% breastfeeding within one hour of the child birth and 100% vaccination. In the last two years there have been 59 births in the Bada (Big) and Chotta (Small) Bhaisakarai and all the deliveries have taken place in the Kalidevi Government Primary Health Centre about 8 kilometers away from the village. Exactly opposite to the prevailing beliefs, the traditional ‘Dai’ (traditional birth attendant) 56 year old Jaimati Bai has given the government solid reasons to reach and associate the community of traditional dais with the system of institutional births. As State government has kept them out from their efforts for providing better and positive environment for the safe deliveries in the society. It is a big issue for the states like Madhya Pradesh where 379 women die per 100 thousand deliveries every year.

The ANM, Kamala Hirodkar carrying round her list of jobs, is able to reach Bhaisakarai only once in fifteen days but working in collaboration with Jaimati Bai she has been able to free the women of the village of the curse of maternal deaths Not just Jaimati Bai but hardly any woman in the community removes her veil and exposes her face but still of them called Basanti Bai says that when they fall ill they go only to the hospital. This statement of Basanti Bai’s may seem an ordinary one to others but the remarkable thing is that Basanti Bai belongs to that community who from birth to death believe in magic, spells and curses for every occasion, treatment and work. It is these beliefs that have normally proved to be a big challenge for the government in every effort. Babu Makhna Maidha has himself been doing the work of Badwa Baba (i.e. a specialist in the work of magic, exorcism etc.) but now he does not treat even one person in this way.

Jaimati Bai has undergone training three times up till now on safe motherhood and the many small bits of knowledge that she has gained from these trainings has changed her behavior completely and she says the most important thing is that if a birth takes place at home and if anything happens wrong to the mother or the baby then there is deep trouble for Dai especially. At that time some deaths too took place but after returning from the training in Jhabua I have done only four jobs. She says that she works in coordination with the ANM to see that every pregnant woman undergoes at least three Ante Natal Checkups (ANC) , gets her vaccinations, gets good and locally available nutritious food to eat and has her delivery done at the hospital.

Laughing, she says that now they pay attention to cleanliness also. Earlier they used to put a layer of cow dung on the floor of the house and the courtyard, but now, she says, we put a layer of ‘gara’ (a mixture of mud, ashes and water) on the floor of our houses. People say what is the use of this? We said that you would not see even a single fly in the house, but Cow dung attracts them. As the villagers speak one by one our faith in the community based social change increases. In the last two years in Bhaisakarai 5900 tablets of iron folic acid have been used. This means that during pregnancy every woman has taken the complete course of 100 IFA tablets. Not only this, there has been a positive change in the attitude to the right to life and a safe environment. Jaimati Bai says that every woman in the village is given Gud (jaggery) and ‘Thuli’ (a delicacy of rice) so that she gets the essential nutrients.

Now there is not even a single child in the village who does not get mother’s milk within after one hour after birth. In fact under the ‘Janani Suraksha Yojana’ (Safe Motherhood Scheme promoted by Government of India) the incentive cash support being given out with the help of the Central government has encouraged the interest in institutional births. When Jaimati Bai used to assist in deliveries at home she did not have any monetary gain but for the last two years she has been paid a sum of two hundred and fifty rupees for every delivery. Nirbhay Singh of the village says that all his three children have been born at home because they used to ask for bribes at the hospital and in addition there was the expenditure of medicines. Because of poverty he had to take the risk of resorting to exorcism but now at least they do not have to sell their household goods or utensils. Under the scheme, to encourage women to have institutional births 34 women have been given monetary help also in the last one year but Kasni Maidha feels that if the money is given before the delivery it would be more useful. Haricharandas Vaishnava of Sampark, a civil society organization working in the Madhya Pradesh Rural Livelihood Program says that the change in the health of women in Bhaisakarai has been the result of a systematic and strategic effort. We have tried to build their faith in the Gram Sabha (Village Council). There have many questions on the effectiveness and credibility of Panchayats and Gramsabha in the community.  Now Civil Society Organization is reaching benefits related to Livelihood the Villagers through these Village and Ward councils and after having many fruitful meetings in Bhaisakarai, a platform has been created to give everyone a chance to speak and give their views. In the beginning when the means of livelihood improved then the tribal people began to speak about their issues of health and education also. Kasni Maidha says that in the primary school in the village the teachers never used to come regularly but when the village council took action their attendance became regular. Similarly what should be the attitude of the people regarding their health is no longer a personal matter but it has become a matter whole village.

Sachin Kumar Jain