Rewa (Madhya Pradesh): Ranjana Dwivedi, an ASHA worker from Madhya Pradesh's Rewa district, has now earned global acclaim as a corona warrior for waging a battle against the pandemic in her own unique way.
Ranjana, who is an ASHA worker at the Gurguda village of the Jawa block, has been using hand-drawn paintings as a medium to generate awareness among villagers about measures to prevent coronavirus.
Soon enough, posters bearing the paintings of the ASHA worker started to make a massive impact in the country as well as abroad. Ranjana's painting shared on Twitter was noticed by the US' National Public Radio (NPR).
The NPR then featured Ranjana in its documentary of 19 women from across the globe who shared their challenges and overcame them during the Covid pandemic.
An interview of Ranjana was also published by NPR, for which she is now being lauded.
Women used to run away from fear of injections
In 2011, Ranjana Dwivedi began her journey as an ASHA worker. She said that women in the area used to run away from her when she approached them for vaccination.
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However, Ranjana did not give up, and chose to educate and sensitise the women through her posters about many various diseases like polio which could be prevented through vaccination. Ranjana then managed to win the trust of the women of the village.
Acknowledging the work of 'ASHA Didi' Ranjana Dwivedi, people are now looking up to her as their idol. The women of the local community are so impressed by her that a woman from the village named her daughter Ranjana.
Ranjana's journey was full of difficulties
Ranjana said that she was initially not interested in the ASHA worker job. However, moved by the suffering of the people of the village, she decided to take up the job.
Every morning, she leaves her village and reaches her destination passing through inaccessible paths. Ranjana has to cross several steep slopes as she travels from one village to another. Not only this, Ranjana also has to cross a dangerous river on a boat to reach Guruguda village. Ranjana said that she has even fallen into the river many times, but being good at swimming, she was able to save her life.
Despite the difficulties, she did not even consider quitting her job. Ranjana said that though there is a road to reach Gurguda village, but the extremely long distance and the poor condition of the road makes travel next to impossible.
If the above was not enough, there is always a fear of being attacked by wild animals and due to being a lowland region, there is the threat of bandits as well.
