Battle against Covid: Kabirpur village’s first woman pradhan leads from the front
LUCKNOW: The war against COVID-19 in Kabirpur village on outskirt of Lucknow is being led by newly elected village head 33-year-old Rita Varma.
A graduate, she is the first women Gram pradhan of the village, which is famous as ‘Band Baja Barat’ village because majority of men here members of ‘Brass Band’, which are roped in to play music in marriage parties.
There are around 145 groups of Brass Band in our village, insists a villager.
Since Independence, no woman has become the Gram Pradhan of Kabirpur.
However, even before Rita could celebrate her win several people started falling ill.
“Soon after election, several people took ill. Many were suffering from fever, but they were hesitant of getting themselves tested for Covid. It was then I started a campaign to create awareness against coronavirus in my village of around 20,000 people,” she says.
“I motivated the residents, especially the senior ones, about the importance of getting themselves tested so that the infection doesn’t spread further, and precious lives are saved. Due to the steps taken, our village is almost corona free today.”
“My husband, Umesh Kumar Varma, always supported me in my aggressive campaign against corona,” she says.
“I was taken aback when my wife expressed her desire to contest election. Though she is a common housewife, she was
very vocal about the problems of poor sanitation, roads and lack of health infrastructure in the village. She was someone who always created awareness about health and hygiene among the women of the village,” says pradhan’s husband.
“She got almost 50% votes and defeated the sitting pradhan by a huge margin. Dedicated that she is, from the very next day she started her campaign to educate villagers about the importance of Covid appropriate behavior. She formed teams in every lane which keeps on checking the movement of residents without masks or violating social distancing,” he says while insisting, “Her emphasis is on sanitation, hygiene, mask and social distancing. In fact, informed villagers have now started objecting people who do not wear masks or not cover their faces.”
Keeping Covid in mind, Rita’s next agenda is the opening of primary health centre (PHC) or a dispensary in Kabirpur for Covid care and non-Covidcare.
“Presently, anyone who falls sick has to go to Gosainganj for treatment. I have already written to authorities for the need of a PHC or a dispensary so that people don’t die due to lack of medical infrastructure,” she says.